


How to Build a Bridge in Eight Thousand Easy Steps

by socksock



Series: Displaced [2]
Category: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: DLC Spoilers, Established Relationship, F/M, Hold Link's beer, Rebuilding Hyrule, Scientist!Zelda, Sequel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-18
Updated: 2021-02-24
Packaged: 2021-03-06 03:40:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 21
Words: 73,789
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25976836
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/socksock/pseuds/socksock
Summary: Zelda just wants to rebuild Hyrule’s infrastructure, rekindle relations between the far-flung settlements, build a new Sheikah slate, and kiss Link's face.  Is that really so much to ask?Sequel to Displaced
Relationships: Link/Zelda (Legend of Zelda)
Series: Displaced [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1885402
Comments: 477
Kudos: 827





	1. Before the 1st Meeting

“Zone three today, right?” Link asks, and Zelda is inordinately pleased that he’s using her terminology. He points at the map on the slate, which is still in Zelda's hands, angled so they can both look at it. “I'll stay on this side of the river and head north: Whistling Hill, the Bottomless Swamp, the ranch ruins, the forest, the bridge and then back here. I can get the two Hinoxes and whatever else I see. It shouldn't be that hard.” 

He’s on the master cycle in front of Wetland Stable, but he has yet to roar the Divine Beast to life. With it quiet, they can discuss his plans without shouting over the sound of the engine. 

“Perfect,” she says. “That will clear the path from Eldin to the stable. The Goron delegation shouldn’t have any trouble making it here. With how you cleared the way from Zora's Domain, we're right on track. I received confirmation yesterday that Amali can carry the Lurelin, Gerudo, Rito, and Tarrey Town representatives on Vah Medoh."

She grins up at Link. They're so close to making this happen, she can nearly taste it on the wind. In just a few short weeks, the Greater Hyrulian Reconstruction Committee is set to meet at the Wetland Stable for their first meeting, and from there the real work towards rebuilding can begin. Zelda's determined that everything will run smoothly. At this point, that's mostly making sure ll the delegates will be able to get here safely and that they'll have somewhere to sleep once they arrive.

"Thank the Goddess for Amali," Link says. He doesn't mention how after this, it's just clearing out southern Akkala so he can escort Bolson Construction from Tarrey Town to get everything built for the meeting, and then escorting the Hateno delegation, the delegation most likely to be scared off by a stray moblin. Hateno is still on the fence about sending a delegation at all. They've agreed, but every time Zelda mentions it, whoever she's speaking to makes a face as if they've smelled something rotten. It's insulting and frustrating, but Link always shrugs as if it's not a big deal and Purah always just calls them some rather rude names and then moves on. "I've lived here for decades. Trust me, they're not worth it."

Zelda insists that they are worth it. It's worth improving the lives of every citizen of Hyrule, even the ones who don't like her very much. But honestly, Purah might have a point.

“I’ll probably be back by five,” Link says, “but if I lose Rumble Bumble, it might be later.” 

"You cannot name the Divine Beast _Rumble Bumble_ ," she says for the eighth time. It's habit by now to chide him and she's already brainstorming ways to solve their problem. "I wonder if there's a way to disable the master cycle's warp function so it stops vanishing the second your back is turned. It's really quite frustrating. Do you think that's something we could adjust on the cycle or something we can reprogram in the slate?"

“If I lose it, I can find a horse. I'm not going too far today."

"Hmm." She's still thinking about it. It makes her feel guilty when he has to travel unexpectedly by foot because she decided to take the slate for the day.

"Don't worry about me unless I’m not back by nine," he says. "If I'm not back by then—“

She shakes herself. “Yes, yes, I’ll warp straight to Kakariko and send a Sheikah search party after you, I know. You’ve got your lunch?”

A smile blooms across his face, and he leans in and reels her closer with his hands at her hips. “Uh huh.” He cranes his neck up to kiss under her jaw.

Her shoulders slump. “You hate it.”

He pulls back. “How could I hate it? My favorite person made me a box of food and took the time to make the carrots look like a flower.” 

“It’s called a bento box, and it’s supposed to be the sun. Wait. How do you know about that? Did you peek at it? Were you checking it was okay?”

He hums and kisses under her ear. “I had to know how much extra food to pack.” She shoves him away, and he laughs. “Your lunch is cute and small. I could eat eight of them.”

“So how much additional food did you pack?"

He answers immediately and without a hint of self-consciousness. "Four meat skewers, some sauteed mushrooms, and a pound cake."

"A whole pound cake?!"

"Well, yeah, it's hard to bake part of a pound cake. Do you want to share? I can give you half." He lets go of her enough to dig through his pockets.

"No, thank you."

He abandons his search and tugs her closer by the hem of her bright red shirt until she mock-begrudgingly drapes her arms around his shoulders.

"Do you hate the lunches I make?" she asks. "You can be honest. I can stop making them. Or stop trying to make them cute. The cute is too much, isn't it? If it's embarrassing you, you can say so."

"Yeah, I'm super embarrassed pulling out my lunch that proves you kind of like me while I'm out in the wilderness entirely by myself."

She can't help but smile at that. "I do kind of like you."

She's told him she loves him a hundred times, but he grins like it's the first time every time she says she likes him. 

He says, "I take my time and eat my box lunch in more than one bite and everything."

"What am I going to do with you?"

"Well. I mean. I have some ideas."

She lowers her head to kiss him.

"Be safe," she says.

"Have fun," he says.

She releases his shoulders and takes a step back. He revs the Divine Beast's engine to life and pulls down his goggles from the top of his head, tugging up a scarf from his neck to cover his nose and mouth. They wave their goodbyes, no longer able to speak over the thunder of the Divine Beast. Link goes his way and she goes hers.

Zelda's latest plans to reproduce a Sheikah slate from scratch look promising enough that Purah's on board with trying it. Zelda's nearly bouncing with excitement as she warps to the tech lab. Purah doesn't bother looking up to make sure it's her. She just picks up the conversation they didn't finish yesterday before Zelda has even closed the door behind her. "We'll need more tubing if you really want to try the expanded graphical interface, and I just don't know where we're going to get that much more. The pared down version is the way to go." 

"Link says there's a whole horde of deactivated guardians under the Lomei Labyrinth. I'd like to check there and see if we can salvage some parts before we decide to scale back."

"With what we have, we could get started programming _today_."

"And end up with a rushed, inferior product."

"Inferior! If we wait until we have all the parts we'd possibly need before we get started, we'll never do anything! We'll just be doing _archeology_." Purah groans the last word as if it's the worst, most boring thing ever.

"I'm not asking to salvage every guardian in Hyrule before we start programming. I'm asking for a morning trip to assess our other options."

Purah groans again.

But Zelda _wants_ the full graphical interface. If she has to fight a guardian herself to make that happen, she will.

"Symin?" she calls. Symin looks up from the corner of the lab where he's been attempting to look small so as not to get drawn into their disagreement. It's too bad for him. "Can I borrow you for the morning?"

And with that they're off, a heavy pack full of wrenches and pliers and crowbars and saws on Symin's back, and light pack full of empty bags on Zelda's. Symin has not grown out of his discomfort of warping with her as he doesn't know where to put his hands. She feels for him, but at this point, he's the one making it awkward. She's discovered that the packs help, because they can hold onto each other's packs with one hand and the slate with the other, and that's enough to warp them both together. It moderately eases his distress.

She’s never been to the labyrinth in the sea, past the farthest reaches of the continent. She only once visited the one in the desert during the excavation of Naboris, and she didn’t get to spend nearly enough time there to solve the maze. So she’s surprised by the scent of the sea and by the fact that they're so high above the maze. Ahead of them is a column of air and a wide window looking onto a courtyard dotted with columns below. She and Symin circle around the air shaft and the stairs leading off into the maze to peer down at a disabled guardian stalker that has slumped at an angle and a pair of skywatchers that have crashed to the ground and shattered.

Symin's soft voice breaks the silence. “I was expecting there to be more of them. Do you think they all walked into the ocean?” In the distance, they can see the entrance to the labyrinth, and through the great slit of an opening, they can see the northern sea beyond. She imagines that she can even see Robbie's tech lab. 

She shakes her head. “No. Link said they were in a cavern. Somewhere hidden.” She looks around to the passageways and to the column of air bursting from the hole in the floor. 

The floor. She eases toward the air shaft, her hair lifted by the breeze. Sure enough, there is a room below them. It’s massively deep, leading her to hypothesize that it’s also quite wide. She lifts her eyes to Symin, who lifts his white eyebrows right back. He tucks his glasses into a pocket inside his shirt and shrugs off his pack to dig for a grappling hook.

Zelda has a better, more expedient idea, and once he has the grappling hook out, she drops her bag to the floor, hefts the heavier one onto her back, and pulls out her paraglider.

“I don’t think that’s the best—“ Symin says, but she steps off into the air shaft before he can finish.

She falls for a second, then snaps open her glider to ease to the ground. But she’s forgotten about the wind, which snatches at the glider, trying to rip it from her grasp, and sends her careening back upward. 

She flies past Symin and has a split second to register his shocked face, before she snaps the glider closed and falls back down the air shaft. She falls and falls and holds herself back from opening her glider. Not yet. Not yet. The room opens up, and she gasps. It’s a graveyard of guardians to rival Blatchery Plain. 

And they’re coming at her fast. She snaps open the glider, and back up she goes before she closes it again and falls and opens it and closes it and lands a bit too hard. She’s also forgotten that she’s wearing a heavy pack.

From her hands and knees, she looks up. And faces the silent guardians.

Maybe she was a bit rash saying she would fight them all.

She waits for them to shudder, for them to grind into life, for their blue lights to flicker into readiness, for their heads to swivel and their eyes to lock. 

Nothing moves. There’s an ambient sound— the wind or the ocean outside. It sounds a bit like whispering. Like waiting.

“Are you alright down there?”

She startles, and when nothing moves she shouts back, “Yes. I’m fine.”

She's able to compose herself and slip into a drab smock to protect her favorite shirt from stains before he makes it down the rope and into the cavern.

They stand quietly beside each other, neither wanting to make the first move into the guardians' space.

"How foolish," she says, mostly to herself. Straightening her shoulders, she marches towards the nearest guardian.

She's able to slip a pair of bombs beneath it, freeze it with stasis while she detonates them, and thus flip the guardian onto its side enough to reach its underside. Before, when guardians were docile and allowed them to do so, she and the Sheikah researchers used to press at a few spots on the underside, which would pop the bottom plate off for maintenance. Those mechanisms no longer work, and Symin has to use a crow bar around the edge while she presses hard into the hidden switch with a screw driver, then shoves wedges into place anywhere he's managed to create a wide enough gap. They have to haul and scrape it open like a tin can, and they both topple backwards when it finally cracks open.

The inside smells of spoiled blue data ink. Somewhere there was a leak or an explosion, as the once glowing fluid has turned dark and dried into a crust, blackening the whole inside. Zelda reaches in up to her shoulder and hauls out the braided mess of tubing that acts as wires. They handle the mass with indifference, ripping the tubes from rusty, crumbling hooks holding them in place, but they disconnect the end of each tube from the guardian's legs and head with painstaking care. The tubing is sturdy. The connections are fiddly and have to be preserved to connect them later to the guidance stone in Purah's lab. It takes them an hour before they can shove the mess of wires into a bag. With a grin, Zelda tucks the loose gears and screws into her magically enhanced pouch. Symin has to crawl half inside the guardian and lie on his back to disconnect its core, and they dig a little hollow in the nest of wires in the bag to cushion it.

They repeat the procedure to dismantle three more guardians. Her face hurts from smiling, because she's going to get her extended programming, and the guardians aren't so scary when she's cracked them open and hollowed them out.

It's hard not to notice the chest set prominently in the center of the room. It's on a short pedestal and surrounded by torches. It's also open and empty. Zelda's absolutely certain that Link took whatever was inside. She makes a note to ask him what the treasure was.

But as they move further into the room, she notices a second chest, this one snuggled in the shadows against the back wall. It looks like Link missed it, which is unlike him. Perhaps the guardians came to life and chased him away before he was able to search the area completely. With the fourth guardian gutted and their bags stuffed and heavy, she heads back to get a better look. Maybe it's booby trapped. Most likely there's a weapon inside that Link found uninteresting or was unable to carry at the time. 

Inside, instead, is a medallion—a flat, round stone a touch too big to fit in her palm. It's made of the same material as the Sheikah slate, and inscribed with celestial designs similar to the warp points on shrines. She turns it this way and that, but can't make sense of it.

Symin peeks over her shoulder, and she holds it out for him to see. 

"Any ideas?" she asks.

"None." When offered, he takes it from her hands and turns it just as she did. "Strange."

"Let's hope it's not cursed, shall we?"

There's a boom from above them, and both their attentions snap to the ceiling as a fine spray of dust rains down on them. All the tension she's beaten back with her minor victory of stripping the guardians forces itself back into her shoulders. There's a shout—a human sounding shout. Any response it might receive is lost to the roar of the ocean.

Her arms are rigid. Her fingers are tight around the medallion. After a long moment of staring at the ceiling, she breathes, "Are there people up there?"

Symin slips a scythe from the small of his back, but she rests a hand on his forearm. "We're done here. Let's just go. Quickly."

They load the four bags of tubing, each almost as tall as Zelda onto their backs, and awkwardly warp to Robbie's, where she dumps everything on his front step and hurries to the cliff edge to peer at the labyrinth through the slate's scope. There is, indeed, a boat anchored at the base. People shift around onboard, but she can't see exactly what they're doing. It seems they have a rope stretched up to the entrance of the maze.

Who are they? What are they doing? How did they manage to get up there? She reminds herself that expansion into previously unsafe parts of Hyrule is exactly the outcome she's wished for with the end of the Calamity. That doesn't stop the cold cramping in her stomach. Maybe they're archeologists. Maybe they intend to build a settlement inside the labyrinth. Most likely they want to pillage the remains of the guardians. Maybe she'll ask Link to look into it later.

"Zelda?" Symin calls. He's struggling under all the weight he's carrying, and she scrambles to pick up what she's dropped and warp them back to Purah's.

Zelda triumphantly drops the bags of tubing at Purah's feet a little after noon. 

"Show off," she says, giving the bags a dead-pan look. Then she asks, "Who's going to clean them?"

Zelda is. She has some ideas. But she'll have to do it tomorrow—yes, yes, putting the programming off again for another day—because now she needs to go to Zora's Domain to iron out a few last kinks for the Zora delegation. They'll be sleeping in the water (one of the main reasons that they're holding their first meeting at Wetland Stable), but asking them to just sleep in the river is a bit like asking the Gerudo to sleep on the ground, so they've been working on designs to section off a part of the river. Adjust the flow. Make it nice. It will be a bit like a pool. They need to discuss final drafts of her design.

Thankfully, Prince Sidon, the Zora representative, always gushes over all her ideas and never has anything negative to say. Unfortunately, he always gushes over her ideas and never has anything negative to say. This means that in order to get any accurate sense of what needs to be done, she's had to rope a few Zora engineers into the conversation. Diplomatically, of course, so as not to offend Prince Sidon. 

"You can't offend Sidon," Link said a few days ago. "I've tried."

"You've _tried_?"

"Well...It didn't work."

After a few hours, she and the Zora have finalized plans and a schedule for one of the Zora engineers to meet her and the Bolson Construction Company at the stable in a week to oversee their progress. Zelda also has a belly full of fish, an invitation from Prince Sidon to visit the veiled falls to see the rainbow in the mist, and an invitation to visit the newly memorialized Vah Ruta, which is apparently now surrounded by some lovely glowing arches.

She then warps to Tarrey Town to meet with Bolson Construction with her finalized plans. 

Bolson whistles and rubs his chin. "Hmm. Well, we _can_ do the new dam wall, but it's going to be extra. You've got your materials, your transportation of said materials, your excavation...What else Karson?"

“Hazard pay!" Karson excitedly shouts.

"Your hazard pay, your costs for high-water boots..." He looks at her from the corner of his eye and names a figure five times his original estimate.

Zelda gives him a blank stare.

He holds it and stares right back, his mouth slowly puckering into a kissy face.

She sighs, takes the plans from him, and rolls them back into a tube. Bolson smirks as if he's won.

"I suppose I'll have to take the Goron's offer then," Zelda says. "Thank you for your time."

Bolson's face falls. "Gorons! You can't have Gorons build in the water!"

"It's true that, while they would prefer not to, they also know better than to try to price gouge, or treat me like a...what's the word, Karson?"

"A sucker, miss!"

"Exactly! In case you haven't noticed, Mr. Bolson, you're not dealing with Link any longer. Now you're dealing with me."

"She's got you there, boss!"

"Shut up, Karson."

"Okay!"

"If that's all, I should get going," Zelda says. She turns and takes half a step before Bolson shouts, "Fine."

She knows better than to look smug as she turns back and takes out a contract she's drawn up. So far, absolutely everyone she's presented with a contract has acted as though they've never seen one before. Because they haven't. They're entirely unenforceable.

Bolson signs it anyway, his big, swirling signature sweeping across the bottom of the page. "I wouldn't like to be on your bad side." He looks up and gives her a lewd look. "Or _maybe I would_. Bossy voice gives me the shivers. So _commanding_."

"Mr. Bolson," she says, "I know that somewhere deep down, you have a personality beyond saying unseemly innuendos to teenagers."

"She's got you there, boss!"

He rolls the signed contract up and hands it back to her with narrowed eyes. "Shut up, Karson."

"You got it, boss!"

"Have a nice evening," Zelda says, and returns Karson's wave as she walks out of town. 

On the other side of the bridge, she warps back to Wetland Stable. It's a few minutes after five, and time to pick up Link. Or at least wait for him, because he’s an hour late and rides up on a newly caught horse without a saddle.

“Me and Rumble Bumble—we still have some work to do on our communication,” he says, shooing the horse back into the wild and smacking a kiss to Zelda’s temple.

“You cannot name a Divine Beast _Rumble Bumble_ ,” she says for the ninth time.

“Oh, Zelda,“ he says, throwing an arm over her shoulder and steering her towards the cooking pot, “it’s way too late for that. Now tell me about your day.”


	2. Before the 1st Meeting

Link has no idea what the medallion from beneath the labyrinth is. He’s a bit miffed that he missed the chest the first time. It was dark. Maybe he got something else out of the chest and didn’t notice this on the bottom. Because it was dark. And he'd just finished fighting like twelve guardians. And if he remembers right, it was like two in the morning. And maybe the medallion's not actually anything anyway.

Zelda rolls her eyes and takes it back from him.

They decide that Link should take the slate today as he goes to clear Zone 4, which circles around the lake in Southern Akkala. One of the first things he has to do is fight a talus and his Divine Beast will evaporate the second he does, meaning he'd be without transportation all day unless he can call it back. 

This actually works well for Zelda, because she is painfully excited to clean that tubing and won't need to leave Hateno to do so.

Tomorrow, once the way is clear, he has to escort Bolson Construction from Tarrey Town to the Wetland Stable, meaning he'll be gone a few days. She can't guarantee that she won't be a wreck without him. So, she insists, she’s very excited to spend time at the tech lab.

Link laughs at her as she shoves his lunch into his hands and shoos him away.

At the lab, Purah doesn't look up from her scribbling as she yells, "Your power output calculations are all wrong. You're going to lose performance with these. I don't think you're taking the cell flipping into account."

Zelda doesn't pause. "And you're not taking the data ink's background energy levels into account. We can gather that and harness it. Good morning, Symin. How are you?"

"Gather it with what, a sponge?" Purah says.

"I can't find any mention of that medallion. Not _anywhere_ ," Symin says. He looks frazzled, with several books out of place on his neat set of shelves.

"Oh dear. I'm sorry.” Then she turns and says, “Purah, I left you schematics of the collector inside Naboris. Did you not look at it?"

Purah has not, because Zelda's sketches have been lost under three layers of calculations done without Zelda's notes. Once recovered, Purah holds them up and frowns at them. "Did you just leave this lying around? Who does that?"

"I handed them to you," Zelda says, heaving one of the bags full of tubing onto her back. "No, I'm fine to carry it myself, Symin. Thank you."

He frowns, and slumps back to his fruitless research. Maybe she should let him carry her bag. Give him a break.

Instead, she hikes alone half-way down to the beach, to the pond behind the tech lab. She has a jar of soap flakes, a bristle brush on a long, long wire, and a hand pump that blasts a thin but powerful jet of water. She untangles the twelve braided tubes crammed in the bag, each one ten feet long, and takes off her boots and rolls up the cuffs of her pants to sit with her feet in the water as she works. Luckily, the tubes are transparent, so it's easy to tell where the data ink has dried and clogged inside. And luckily, the clogs flake away much easier than she was anticipating, but they do tend to get packed together as she threads the bristle bush further and further down the tube. When the last clog pops loose and flakes tumble out of the end of the tube, she deftly places a jar to collect the gunk. The indigo flakes float on the surface of the water, shaped like a flat sprawl of mold, the surface of the water in the jar turning oily, shining like a rainbow.

When she's done and the sun has lifted and lowered, she finds that Symin has not been any help to Purah all day. He's sitting cross-legged on the floor with one hand in his hair so his top-knot has come a bit lopsided. His fruitless research into the medallion has lead to piles of books and an open notebook by his knee filled with wild sketches and too many question marks.

Purah is furious both that Symin is useless and that Zelda didn't hand her those schematics earlier, meaning she's mostly mad at herself but won't admit it. She and Zelda end up arguing about the power needs again until Link arrives, barging into the tech lab in triumph, which immediately dissipates into fear at the sound of Zelda and Purah's raised voices.

"Tell her she's wrong!" Purah shouts. "Wrong, wrong, wrong." 

Link blinks and says, "I'm...not going to do that."

"Look at the math!"

"My math is perfect," Zelda says. "You're just upset that I'm right."

"You're right, my foot! How are you even getting this number? Explain yourself."

"Cosine tables."

" _Cosine_ —" Purah straightens, blinks, then bows back over her notes to squint at them. "Oh, that does say cosine, doesn't it?"

Zelda rolls her eyes, packs up her things, and saves Link from having to try to maintain his neutral face.

He walks a little too close to her on the way down the mountain, his hand slipping into hers, then wrapping around her waist when he decides that's not good enough. He keeps pecking kisses to her temple, and it's awkward because they're both walking down a hill, but that doesn't stop him from trying again every few minutes.

"I found something for you," he says, pulling out a thin journal as they walk. On the front it says, "The Rumor Mill."

"This is the woman we met by the Molduking?" she asks. She opens it to find the words, "Teleportation rumors," which at first she thinks might be about Link warping all over the place. But as she reads on, her eyes grow wider. "There's a device hidden under the Lomei Labyrinth that allows you to teleport." Her head snaps up to Link. "Under the labyrinth?"

"Yep."

"That means—"

"Yep."

"But! This is incredible! How does it work?" she asks. "And were did you find this?"

"South Akkala stable. Most of the stables have a Rumor Mill volume."

"They just have a stack of these?" She doesn't remember seeing that at any of the stables she's visited.

"No, just the one. For sharing. Like a library. To keep you entertained when you spend the night there."

"And...they don't mind if you check out their only copy?"

He shrugs. "I don't think it counts as checking it out if I never bring it back."

She sighs but holds back from scolding him for his thievery. It seems the rumor is now out of date anyway.

He practically attaches himself to her hip all night, sitting so close to her while they eat dinner that he ends up holding his fork in his left hand because his right is around her back. Because she doesn't want to think about anything else, she rambles about cleaning the tubes and how tomorrow she finally, finally gets to start programming. He listens and nods in all the right places. He props his chin on her shoulder as she fiddles with the transportation medallion. She's pretty sure it connects to the slate somehow, possibly creating a new warp point. But will it be permanent? If so it would be awful if they wasted it making a warp point in their living room. How long will the warp point last? How does it communicate with the slate? What would be a good way to try it?

She looks up to see him smiling at her like a goof.

"What?"

"I'm going to miss you."

She laughs even though she'll miss him terribly. She tells him what she's telling herself, "It will just be a few days." A few long days.

"We haven't been apart this long before."

"That's ridiculous. You've gone off for days plenty of times. Besides which, we were apart for a hundred years."

"Still feels like a long time."

She hums because he's right, and if she admits it, she might feel it: the loneliness she keeps convincing herself that she's moved past. 

"How many lunches should I make for you?"

"Twelve?"

"You'll be gone five days at most."

"Fifteen then."

"There will be people around to see you eat them."

"I'm not sharing."

In the morning, she pokes him awake and nudges him, groggy and bleary, into getting dressed. When he's finally packed, he follows her out of the house and into the predawn light. She gets out the slate to warp them to the North Akkala stable where he'll get a horse for the trip. She pulls up the map, waiting for him to come up next to her and take the slate in one hand. Instead, he slips up behind her, wraps both arms around her waist, ignores the slate completely, and nuzzles into the back of her neck.

"You're going to be late," she says. Her words are quiet in the early morning air.

"I can make up the time on the ride."

"Don't push your horse too hard."

"I would never." 

She leans her head to the side to give him better access to her neck as he switches from nuzzling to kissing.

He makes his way up to her ear, "I'm going to miss you." Then he takes her earlobe between his teeth.

She gasps and squirms and her hand comes up to tangle in his hair and hold him closer. "I'll miss you too." She pushes back against his chest as his hands start to roam.

"It's okay if I'm late," he says, even though she wasn't arguing. It actually sounds like a good idea. "Bolson won't be ready when I get there." His words pulse, hot and fluttering, against her eardrum, and it tingles so much that she spins on him and shoves him against the side of the house, pinning him in place and making him kiss her properly. She tightens her hold on his hair and twists the collar of his shirt in a fist. He melts into it.

She pulls back, and he makes a disgruntled noise and tries to follow her. To keep him back, she tightens her grip on his hair. His eyes flutter and a flush creeps over his face and follows a thick swallow down his throat, where she knows from experience it will spread across his chest. He drags her hips closer, flush against his.

"You'll be safe while I'm gone?" he says.

She sighs, because that sounds like he's about to leave. He really should leave. She leans in to kiss his neck. "So safe."

"And you'll meet me at the stable?"

"I'll start checking for you in three days. Just like we talked about."

"It might be four if they're—they're slow and—" He hisses as she licks him. "If it's more than five—"

"I'll beg the Sheikah for aid." She plants her mouth against the side of his neck and sucks. Hard. He makes a strained little noise, and she sucks harder as if she can drag a part of him up from his bones and pull it into her mouth and carry it with her while he's gone. She finally releases him to give the mark she's left a critical look. She's quite proud of it, even if it blends in with a large scratch from when he fell out of a tree a few days ago, and a bruise on his jaw from his battle with a hinox last week. 

It's a good claim on him. "The sooner you leave—" She looks up at him with a promise in her eyes. "—The sooner you'll come back."

He stares at her in dazed awe, then breathes, "I love you."

She pops a kiss to the tip of his nose and releases his hair. "I love you. And I'm going to start programming the new slate today, and if I get there before Purah is awake, I can start without her and then she'll have no choice but to do it my way."

He snorts, still a bit out of sorts. "No one has a choice but to do everything your way."

She beams at him, slips the slate loosely into his hand, and warps them both to North Akkala.

And, yes, she is going to throw herself into her programming project to distract herself while he's gone, but it's not like that's a bad thing.

Purah is not awake when she warps to the tech lab, but Symin hears her quiet shuffling around on the first floor and comes down most likely to murder her if she turned out to be an intruder. When she turns out not to be a burglar, his posture loosens, he sighs, and he goes to make coffee.

They begin the long process of draining the data liquid from the guidance stone. They climb up ladders (Link would frown at how rickety the ladder are) so they can reach inside the top portion of the stone, which they've rigged to hang from the ceiling without touching it for this very purpose. Zelda can just squeeze the top half of her body between the ceiling and the guidance stone, which then lies below her like a bowl full of twisted tubes full of glowing blue data ink. They carefully detach a specific end of a specific tube, untangle the tube, while not dropping any of the liquid inside, and manage to get it free enough to drain the liquid down into a metal drum. Then they do the process again for the next tube. And the next. There are only six tubes, as the process of updating the runes of the slate are not nearly as complicated as the job of creating the slate's memory and interface systems from scratch.

Purah arrives at that point, and stomps around a bit because they started without her, and Zelda's a touch disappointed that they didn't get farther in the process before Purah appeared. Purah demands to drink some of the coffee, and Symin refuses, saying it will stunt her growth, and they rehash an old argument. 

(Link would probably try to fool her with some sort of elaborate coffee imitation.)

Zelda hurries to try to get more of the liquid drained while they're busy

She doesn't make it very far, and Purah retrieves a very large magnet and runs it up and down the sides of the drum, washing away any information that the data liquid picked up from the guidance stone's previous configuration. She tires of that quickly, especially since the real work is being done up near the ceiling, and she makes Symin take her place. She scrambles up the ladder to arrange the tubes with Zelda.

With the tubes cleared out, the bowl of the guidance stone is an array of hundreds of small, round emitters that dot the inside, each one giving a single, tiny instruction. It is Zelda and Purah's job to run the tubes so that the liquid inside passes the emitters in the right order, programing it to carry out complicated instructions. They do this by twisting and wrapping the tubes, securing them in place with ancient hooks dotted even more frequently across the inside of the bowl than the emitters. The hooks snag on sleeves and scrape against fingertips. There's a science to the order that the tubes encounter the emitters, meaning the tubes criss cross inside the bowl to hit the emitters in the right order. There's a science to the duration that the liquid is exposed to each emitter, meaning sometimes the tubes loop, circling a single emitter. There's a science to the interval between encountering emitters, meaning sometimes the tubes are left slack and sometimes Zelda needs to attach a device that squeezes the tube to pump the liquid faster for a short distance. There's a science to how far away the liquid is from the emitter, meaning sometimes they hold the tubes in place with dowels or strings. If they have a second tube between an emitter and the one they're trying to program, the dampening can alter the instructions, so sometimes they do this on purpose. Sometimes a tube visits and revisits and revisits a single emitter.

They're going to use eighteen tubes, for the first eighteen programs, which together will (hopefully) allow the new slate to store data.

But first they have to get the tubes in place.

The project may take years.

Zelda can't contain her excitement.

Even though they've gone over and over and over the schematics, even though they have detailed plans right in front of them on huge blue paper, Zelda and Purah argue over almost everything. Purah second guesses Zelda's work, wanting to "fix" it at the last minute, even going so far as to try to change things while she's not looking. Luckily, Zelda is paying very close attention, and the design is so complicated that changing one thing eventually makes something else fall apart, so the truth always comes out. Once Zelda has her arms inside the bowl of the guidance stone and she has a real-life view of how everything works, she starts to see more efficient ways to accomplish what she wants, and then she and Purah have to argue about _that_.

They know full well that the first tube is the easiest. They don't have to maneuver it around anything but itself. It's too soon to recognize the errors they've surely made, but those errors will start to make themselves known more and more frequently as they go along.

Only a few hours later, Symin forces them to stop and eat. Then he does it _again_ a few hours after that.

Purah starts getting downright grouchy around ten-o-clock in the evening, and Symin and Zelda team up to make her go to bed. They only manage to do that by promising they will stop working too. Zelda fully intended for this to be a lie. She is an adult and can stay up until at least one or two, maybe later because she doesn't want to go home to her empty house. But Symin obnoxiously makes her follow through on her agreement, and tells her to go home. 

“What am I supposed to do at home?” It's going to be miserable and lonely and boring.  
  


Symin sighs loudly and nudges her out of the lab. “Goodnight, Your Highness.” Then he closes the door in her face.

How dare he!

She's not able to sleep. She tells herself that she's too excited. But really, the house is eerily quiet, making her jump at every odd noise. Her bed is too big and too cold. She sits at the kitchen table and pours over her diagrams until she falls asleep on top of them.

She dreams of meeting Link at the stable and asking, “Do you remember me?”

The next day, they get the first tube in place by early afternoon. Without the other tubes in place to secure its position, it's now held awkwardly where it belongs with twine and paper and—in one place—a kitchen skillet. Symin suggests that they "take a break" and "go for a walk," and both Zelda and Purah give him looks of such disgust that he drops it with a sigh. They start on the second tube. 

Symin does manage to get them to eat dinner, but only by tempting them with honed apple, and then once again he manages to kick Zelda out of the lab when it's Purah's bed time. Zelda stomps off into the dark in a huff, but slows as she walks, delaying the inevitable moment when she'll approach the house and there will be no gentle humming coming from the wood pile or the stable and no one to nod as she rants about Purah. There will be no smells of butter and fresh Hyrule herb to fill the house. No one will hurry to clear too many rusty halberds from the kitchen table the second she walks in. 

The silence weighs on her, and after just a few minutes of going over her notes, she starts ranting to the air about Purah—speaking half as if Link were listening, and half as if her notes can sympathize. "Perhaps I should get a dog," she says to herself. "That way, I would be speaking to a dog and not to myself. No, that's a terrible idea. My busy schedule won't allow me to care for a dog as adequately as it deserves." She dozes off again in the early early morning hours and wakes with a painful cramp in her back.

(Link would know how to fix it.)

The next day, they're only about three quarters of the way through the second tube when Symin clears his throat, and Zelda groans. "I simply cannot believe that it's time for dinner already. This is absurd."

"It's not," he agrees.

"Good." Zelda ducks back into the bowl of the guidance stone.

"It is time for you to go to the Wetland Stable and pick up Link."

She pulls her head out again. "Will you two wait until I get back?"

"No," Purah says.

"I'll be only fifteen minutes."

"Then you won't miss much."

"Symin?" she pleads.

"You know, parenting a five-year-old and a teenager is not actually what I signed up for when I took this job."

Zelda doesn't even step outside to warp. She doesn't even climb all the way down the ladder. Link probably hasn't reached the stable yet. She tells herself this, even as her heart clenches with hope that he's waiting for her. She makes a pass inside the stable, waving to the staff, then a circle around the outside, checking the fire pit and the paddock, the forest, the river, and the shrine for any evidence of the construction team. She scurries up the hill across the road and looks down on the road approaching the stable from the north. She uses the slate's scope to search the road far across the wetlands. There is no sign of them, so she warps immediately back to the tech lab and flies up the ladder to check everything Purah did while she was gone.

She wasn't expecting him yet anyway. And she has so much work to do.

She must look pretty pathetic when Symin tries to send her home that night, because he gives her a long look, disappears up the stairs, then returns with too many blankets that he hands to her before retiring without a word. She makes a nest on the floor, and lets the quiet rumbling of the tech lab's machinery lull her into sleep.

She checks the stable again first thing in the morning, but Link and the construction team still haven't arrived. At the tech lab, they finish the second tube before lunch and Zelda and Purah immediately start he third before Symin can say anything about getting fresh air or stopping to drink water. Already, getting the tubing in place is starting to pose a challenge. Not overly so, and nothing in comparison to what it will be, but they've already broken out a pair of long, thin tongs to reach challenging spots. There's a point where they have to thread the third tube inside a coil of the first, but it seems almost like the coil is too tight to do so. They have to cram it through, and then go back and double check the first tube, which is now not coiled tightly enough, which sends them back to check their calculations that the geometry is actually correct. Their math is perfect, and the solution is to get several clamps to hold the new knot they've made as tight as possible. It's concerning. If they have to change anything later, it will be a mess.

They just get it settled when Symin reminds her of the time, and she takes off for the stable, ready to make a quick loop and hurry back.

Her breath catches at the sight of a campfire in the woods.

As she gets closer, there's Karson, getting a small ring of tents in place. He directs her to the river, where Bolson, Hudson, and Greyson are standing around, pointing at things. The diagrams she made for the Zora's damn-like structure are in Bolson's hand.

She greets them with an overly wide smile. "I'm so glad you safely arrived."

"Walking is good for our manly bodies."

"Of course."

He starts to tell her about how, actually, the current is different from what the Zora said it was in the diagrams and that's going to make it hard, and Zelda tries to appear as if she's listening rather than looking around for Link. Bolson explains how, actually, the stone nearby isn't really that great after all, which earns him a narrowed-eyed look from Greyson, who obviously disagrees, but says nothing, and Zelda tries to think of an excuse for looking over her shoulder when she's supposed to be listening attentively and making eye contact. Bolson is just getting started with a rant about their timeline for the temporary meeting house when Zelda can't take it and interrupts.

"Do you know were Link is?"

Bolson stops his rant and rolls his eyes dramatically. "He went fishing, thank the Goddess. The only break we get from Zelda this and Zelda that is when he ducks off to kill something." 

Something warm turns over in her stomach. Her smile grows a fraction.

"A bit of an exaggeration," Hudson mutters.

"The little guy's no worse than Hudson," Greyson says.

Hudson defends himself with, " _My_ wife is pregnant. I'm justified."

"And Bolson started it with the teasing, I think," Greyson says, rubbing his chin in thought and not bothering to acknowledge Hudson. "You got on his case way before he started going on about Zelda, goro. I'm pretty sure he was doing it to spite you."

"Or he just missed her," Hudson mutters.

Bolson groans, "I prefer studly men, who don't _mope_ and _pine_ and _complain_. It's been miserable being around you today. I'm not having it tomorrow, so buck up, boy-o!"

Hudson mutters, "Yes, boss."

Link picks that moment to explode up out of the river in a shower of water, his hair slicked to his head and four fish hanging from his hand by their tails. He wrings out his pony tail as he wades through the shallows and his eyes light when he sees her. "Zel!"

Her heart leaps, and her face can't hold the power of her grin. She rushes towards him and splashes through ankle deep water before throwing her arms around his shoulders and tucking her forehead against his temple. He grabs her with his fish-less hand and pulls her tight to his chest. 

She laughs. She's already soaked from chest to knee, water leaking into her boots. She pulls back enough to meet his eyes and breathe, "Hello."

He kisses her hard, nearly bending her backwards, his free hand bracing against her back,

Bolson boos loudly.

Link throws the fish in his direction, makes some sort of gesture with his hand behind Zelda's back, and takes her up in both arms, kissing her harder. She cups his jaw to change his angle and darts her tongue along his bottom lip. He tastes like the river.

When he comes up for air, she smiles against his lips, slightly breathless. "You ready to go home?"

"Beyond ready to go home."

"Do you need to gather any of your belongings?"

"No," he says, his hand fumbling at her waist. A second later, he has her slate in hand, nudging it against the hand she now has twisted in the front of his shirt.

She takes hold of it, and turns her head to shout over her shoulder, "We'll check in again s—" but her words vanish as she's warped away.

They're locked together at the mouth in a kiss that has no end, so he can't nibble at her ear and she can't whisper and gasp. It's not so much about arousal. They stumble out of most of their wet clothes, so they can feel each other's skin, warm and alive. They grope at each other's backs and shoulders, arms and hips and thighs, fingertips digging into flesh, kneading into muscle, pulling until they're so wrapped up in each other that hours could slip away from them. He worships her, tender and unhurried, and she reassures herself that every last divot and scar of him is back with her. Unchanged.


	3. The 1st Meeting

Zelda oversees construction by the stable. In addition to the partial dam wall, they're building a small meeting house, along with an extension onto the stable itself for more sleeping room. Most of the delegations are bringing their own tents, but a few more solid structures seem appropriate. 

Bolson is constantly running out of materials, or running into problems, or "Can't work in the rain." So Link is constantly rushing off to collect wood or check again for lizalfos rumored to be in the area. Zelda's constantly rushing off to prove that the hill nearby isn't actually haunted or rushing to butter up the stable master after the Zora engineers arrive and insult his dog. She's smoothing ruffled feathers as the Zora engineers ask why their plans weren't followed and Bolson asks why the plans didn't take into account that the bedrock is seven feet down and the stable master gets upset that they're cutting down two trees too many to make room for the new meeting house.

It's exhausting and the meeting hasn't even started yet.

The slate programming gets shuffled to the side. She tries to squeeze time in at the lab in the evenings, but it's random what days she'll be able to show up, and it seems Purah and Symin aren't keen on dropping what they're doing to program for only an hour. The finished the third tube without her, but won't start the fourth until she "has time to not be distracted."

Their words cut. But they have a point. Maybe after the meeting she'll have time.

Link and Zelda agreed to escort the Hateno delegation to the meeting—Link for protection, Zelda to try to butter them up. There are four people in the delegation: Reede, the official delegate and "head" of Hateno Village (a self-appointed role); Pruce, the owner of the general store; Dantz, a farmer; and Manny, in charge of checking out anyone new in town and judging if they're suspicious (another self-appointed role). It seems that together they are going to judge if the rest of Hyrule is suspicious. They're grim and serious, looking like soldiers marching into battle, unsure of their survival but ready to protect their loved ones.

Zelda gives them her most welcoming, friendly smile, which is difficult with how tight her shoulders are for fear that Bolson won't be done on time and there won’t be anywhere for the delegation to stay once they travel all the way there.

They set out after breakfast and travel through what’s still technically Hateno for much of the day.

Zelda is attempting to get to know her traveling companions, but it proves difficult. She asks Manny, "Did you check out Link when we arrived in Hateno?"

The man mutters and avoids meeting her eyes, "Yeah. He's alright."

Link shoots him a thumbs up, with a smile that Zelda understands to mean that there's a story here that Link finds hilarious and also tells her that Manny isn't in on the joke.

"And did you check me out when I arrived?" she asks.

Manny turns bright red.

She tries to ease his embarrassment with, "You must have been quite discreet, because I didn't notice." It doesn't seem to help. He looks over his shoulder to where Dantz is walking beside one of the donkeys, then slows his pace to walk beside him, falling behind Zelda.

She turns to Link and lowers her voice. "What did you do to earn his trust? If I know, I might be able to do the same and win him over."

"That'd be tricky."

"Why's that?"

"First of all, what I did for him was pretty specific."

"I'm not going to like that there's a second of all, am I?"

He checks over his shoulder and pitches his voice even lower. "He was being obnoxious, so I gave him really bad dating advice. It's pretty obvious that he hasn't followed through on it yet—"

"—Because he still likes you."

"Yeah. If he ever does, he's going to figure out that I don't like him."

Of course. "Let's hope he never does."

"Yeah. For a lot of reasons."

They walk for a few minutes in silence before it eats at her too much. " _When_ did you give him this advice?"

He shrugs. "On of my first visits in Hateno. Way before I bought the house."

"And you felt qualified to give dating advice at that point."

His eyebrows lift in amusement. "I didn't. That's the point."

"What did you tell him?"

"That ladies love crickets."

"I beg your pardon?"

"Crickets. You know. Chirp chirp? I told him to get a bunch and give them to the woman he wants to impress."

She frowns.

"What?" he asks. "Too mean?"

"You're implying that there's something wrong with crickets. A cricket's stridulationis are fascinating."

He gives her a carefully blank look.

"What?" she demands.

"I like you."

"Just tell me you haven't deceived anyone else from the Hateno delegation."

He has to think on it.

#

They spend the night just inside Fort Hateno, then Zelda warps to Dueling Peaks stable when they set out in the morning. It's not only that she would simply rather not have a panic attack on Blatchery Plain. It's also that having a panic attack in front of the Hateno delegation, seems like a bad start to a diplomatic gathering where she hopes everyone will take her seriously and they'll discuss using ancient Sheikah technology for the benefit of all.

Link leads her horse and tells everyone that she's gone to scout ahead. She takes her time walking up to the fork in the road, then waits for the group until around mid day. She's already picked a nice place for lunch and prepared some salt-grilled fish. The delegation looks impressed.

They arrive in Kakariko late. Zelda startles Paya by hugging her, and Impa has a lavish dinner waiting for them, ready to impress their visitors from Hateno. Impa and Zelda fought abut how Zelda would be addressed in their presence. Impa refuses to call her anything other than Your Highness, and she's still sore that Zelda refused her place as queen, but Impa comes through with impressing the Hateno delegation. She treats them like dignitaries of old—with appreciation, courtesy, and respect. Reede's shoulders relax for the first time since their trip began, and he laughs with Cado over a cup of sake. Trissa shows Pruce some of the wares she has available, in which he's extremely interested.

"I'll send some on Medoh's next circuit," she says. "It's so foolish of me to not have reached out to you already. I must be getting forgetful. I thought I'd found a trade partner at all of her stops."

"Medoh?" he says.

"Vaj Medoh? The Divine Beast?"

"Oh," he says. He averts his eyes and suddenly there's an apologetic tone to his voice. "It...we don't allow it in Hateno."

She stares at him, then down at the swift carrots in front of her. It's unclear if she's reassessing the people of Hateno or if she simply has no idea how to accomplish the trade she'd suggested.

Zelda falls into bed exhausted, feeling as though she just might be able to squeak out a success.

The Sheikah delegation joins them for the last leg of their trip, and they arrive at the stable late in the afternoon.

She nearly sags in relief to see that everything is finished. Not only that, but it looks perfect. She suspects that it would look even more perfect if she wasn't aware of all the drama that went into the construction. Link grins at her as they survey the final product, throws an arm around her, and squeezes her against his side.

The meeting house is simple, done in Bolson's usual modular style. But unlike his home designs, the utilitarianism of the shape is fitting for a public building. Zelda convinced him to make all three of the cubes set in a row the same blue with white trim. Tree branches lean over it, leaving speckled shadows on the walls, so it looks less like a child's block set dropped onto the scene and more like it's working to fit with its environs.

Over the door is the phoenix and triforce, painted in a deliberate but unpracticed hand. She can't help but grin at it.

Sidon and his excort have already arrived. The Zora prince slaps Link on the back so hard that his knees nearly double. He bows to Zelda, lifting her hand to his rows of teeth in what is a terrifying and yet sweet imitation of a kiss before congratulating her on the pool area sectioned off for the Zora and offering them some of the feast of a fish spread that they've prepared without warning.

The Hateno delegation were clearly expecting the Zoras to all look like the armed guards at Sidon's back—thin and only slightly taller. They were not expecting the over-enthusiastic, seven-foot-tall, bright red shark-man that is the Zora prince. Thankfully, the Sheikah are unafraid and sit down to the feast, and Zelda absolutely gushes over the salmon, insisting everyone try it. If the Sheikah and a teenage girl aren't afraid, then the men from Hateno will be damned if they show any fear.

Zelda's absolutely exhausted from smiling so much and showing so much enthusiasm, and she collapses into the cot she'll share with Link as soon as he gets their tent set up. 

The Goron delegation arrives the next morning. They half roll, half plod their way down the road, and everyone can feel them coming from a half mile away. Zelda was skeptical when the Goron boss told her that Rohan, the gruff master smithy would be the Goron delegate. She considers him a dear friend after they spent so much time together in the forge in Goron City, but his people skills leave a great deal to be desired, and he hates even leaving his forge, much less leaving Death Mountain.

But Link had just blinked at her, and then shook his head in confusion. "Bludo doesn't volunteer anyone. You can bet Rohan volunteered."

"He'd never!" Link clearly didn't know him at all.

"Of course he would. He knows it would help you out, _and_ he'll get to see you again." He shrugged as if this is obvious.

Rohan rolls up to the stable with a pair of young Gorons as his escorts, and Zelda rushes up to hug him.

"You better make this worth my time, Little Brother," he grumbles. "I had to leave Fugo and Slergo in charge of the forge." He pats her back as softly as he'd pet a kitten.

"You've taught them well. I'm sure they won't burn the place down."

"Be hard to burn down anything in Goron City." He laughs so hard at his own joke that a flock of birds take flight. "Where can we get something to eat? I'm starving, goro."

Link shows him where Greyson has a grill and some limestone cooking. Or as Greyson calls it "the local delicacy." Zelda entices Reede and Pruce to come say hello, at which point Rohan is grumpy and Reede (actually trying to be open minded) tries valiantly to not show his horror that the Gorons eat rocks and Pruce (also trying to be friendly, may the Goddess smile on him) insists in a whisper that they must be special rocks that _are_ edible or something magical happens when the Gorons cook them, and yeah, sure, he'll try some.

Greyson offers him a rock so big a korok could easily hide under it. It's so hot that the water particles inside it pop and fine cracks have erupted through it. Zelda's about to squeak out a warning when Link deftly shifts it to the side and murmurs something to Greyson, who makes a face and pulls out a chunk of rock salt to cook for the Hylians. Pruce chokes on it and downs two glasses of water, but at least he doesn't end up eating a chunk of limestone in the name of Greater Hyrulian unity.

Vah Medoh arrives soon after, perching on top of the hill nearby. The Hateno delegation eyes the Divine Beast warily from a safe distance, hidden in the doorway of the stable, fear clear on all their faces. But Zelda beams at them before bouncing on her toes and rushing up the hill to be scooped into a hug by Amali. Her daughters throw themselves at Link until he topples backwards, and he and the girls roll down the hill in a mess of pastel feathers. Amali doesn't even blink at them.

Teba is the first of the delegates to step off the Divine Beast. He's taken the loss of the championship in stride, and has stepped up to represent his people in other ways. He greets Zelda with a stately nod, and she's just asking about how Rito Village is faring as she hasn't been there in a while when Link makes his way back up the hill and is immediately tackled by Teba's son, Tulin. Teba gets distracted scolding them as Deltan, Rhondson, and Mubs exit the Divine Beast.

Rhondson is the Tarrey Town delegate, mostly because no one wanted the job and everyone agreed that she would be the most chaotic choice. She isn't hugely pregnant yet, but she's showing. In true Gerudo style, she's fashioned a flowing top that leaves her belly bare, but covers her sides and back out of "modesty."

Deltan has been selected as the Gerudo delegate. She knows Hyrule well, and even through she ultimately wasn't chosen to be Naboris' pilot, during the tournament, she proved herself of true Gerudo spirit. She also proved to be quite the catch, and, despite her setbacks looking for a husband while she was on her pilgrimage to find one, the tournament crowds found her intriguing. She now has more offers than she knows what to do with, and has decided that if they weren't there when she wanted them, they can just stay away. She's done with them now. Now she's a diplomat.

"Yeah, screw them," Link says. There are pink and blue feathers in his hair and a stripe of dirt down his front.

Deltan gives him a dead-pan look, and turns her attention back to Zelda, introducing her to the Lurelin delegate, Mubs. Deltan presents the fish seller with the same pomp Zelda used to receive when she was introduced as royalty. Deltan introduces her as if Zelda has never met the woman before. It's clear that the Gerudo has taken the small Hylian under her wing, even though Mubs has done a circuit of Hyrule on Vah Medoh twice now and is a rather savvy business woman.

Mubs looks absolutely terrified of Deltan, her shoulders slightly hunched in embarrassment. Perhaps that's why Deltan has decided that Mubs must be protected.

Zelda beams at them. "I'm so glad you've all made it. I want you to meet the group from Hateno." In a whisper she adds, "We're trying to get them on board with Vah Medoh."

Mubs' eyes light up. She's probably already calculating what she could do with a market in Hateno.

#

Hyrule Rebuilding Committee

Meeting called to order 9:15 AM, the third day of the Starflower Moon

Chair: Zelda of Hyrule

Zora Representative: Prince Sidon

Goron Representative: Rohan

Rito Representative: Teba

Gerudo Representative: Deltan

Sheikah Representative: Cado

Representative of Lurelin Village: Mubs

Representative of Hateno Village: Reede

Representative of Tarry Town: Rhondson

Link, Champion of Hyrule

1\. Motion by the Rito Representative to repair damage to the Great Tabantha Bridge with appropriate renovations. Such an undertaking would provide improved trade to the Tabantha Region. Motion Seconded by the Gerudo Representative. The Representative from Lurelin Village requests figures on the cost of such a project and details about construction, personnel, and design bids. The Zora Representative argues that the Bridge of Hylia should be repaired and renovated first, as such repairs would improve trade into Central Hyrule.

2\. Motion by the Zora Representative to repair damage to the Bridge of Hylia with appropriate renovations. Motion seconded by the Sheikah Representative. The chair notes that they have yet to vote on the previous motion. The Rito Representative argues that his motion did not receive sufficient discussion, and that the Zora Representative has commandeered the meeting. The Zora Representative argues that he has all of Hyrule’s best interests at heart, and suggests that the Rito Representative is serving his own people’s best interests instead of the greater good. The Rito representative argues that it's not the greater good if it doesn't help his people in the slightest. The Representative from Hateno wonders if the bridge is still crawling with lizalfos. The Champion of Hyrule says they’ll be gone by the next meeting. The Representative from Lurelin Villiage requests figures on the cost of such a project and details about construction, personnel, and design bids.

3\. Motion by the Chair that any further repair, renovation, or infrastructure projects must be presented with design bids from contractors and an itemized budget. Motion is seconded by the Representative of Lurian Village. The motion passes.

4.Motion from the Lurelin Representative to remove the Moblin presence on the Southern Coast. Such monsters pose a safety hazard for the people of the area and significantly hinder the fishing trade. Motion seconded by the Champion of Hyrule, who says the moblin camps will be neutralized by the next meeting. The Sheikah Representative argues that a task force of warriors should be formed to remove the monsters rather than have the Champion of Hyrule complete the project alone. This is seconded by the Zora Representative. The Chair notes that there was not motion to second.

5\. Motion by the Zora Representative to form a task force of warriors to aid the Champion of Hyrule in removing monster disturbances. Motion seconded by the Sheikah Representative. The Champion of Hyrule argues that such a force would put untrained people in unnecessary danger and training them would take longer than if he just handled it himself. The Zora Representative expresses his concern for the Champion’s safety, work load, and time constraints. The Sheikah Representative volunteers a dozen warriors who are already trained. The Gerudo Representative volunteers two dozen warriors who are better trained than the Sheikah warriors. The Sheikah Representative demands censure against the Gerudo Representative’s incendiary comments. The Gerudo Representative demands censure against the Sheikah Representative’s face. The Champion of Hyrule expresses his gratitude for the Representatives’ generosity, but argues that he’d really rather handle it alone. Amended motion by the Zora Representative that all volunteers arrive at Lurelin Village in two weeks time for training under the command of the Champion of Hyrule. Motion seconded by the Representative of Tarrey Town. The motion passes.

6\. Motion by the Sheikah Representative to establish a centralized trading post on the former Castle Town site. Reminder from the Chair that all renovation and infrastructure projects must be presented with design bids from contractors and an itemized budget. Request from the Sheikah Representative that they discuss what infrastructure would be necessary and desirable in constructing such a site before bids are requested. The Chair allows it. The Gerudo Representative suggests a bazaar or open-air market, with the agreement of the Rito Representative and the Representative of Tarrey Town. There is lengthy discussion on how many stalls would be necessary with the final agreement of twelve. The Lurelin Representative recommends the construction of a new stable. The Rito Representative recommends the construction of a meeting house for future committee meetings. This would allow meetings to be held in a central location.

7\. Motion by the Gerudo Representative for the next meeting of the Hyrule Rebuilding Committee to be held in Gerudo Town. Motion seconded by the Rito Representative. The Chair reminds the Gerudo Representative that more than half the committee would not be allowed to attend. The Rito Representative rescinds his seconding. The Gerudo Representative recommends replacing committee members who would not be allowed entry into Gerudo Town with more acceptable representatives. Motion seconded by the Representative of Tarrey Town. The Sheikah Representative demands censure against the Gerudo Representative’s incendiary comments. The motion is defeated.

6 B. Continuing the discussion of the desired components of a trading post located on the former site of Castle Town, the Champion of Hyrule recommends that the goddess statue be rebuilt. The Chair recommends a memorial to those lost at Castle Town from the events of the Calamity.

8\. Request from the Chair to discuss removing the obvious signs of Calamity Ganon. This would allow the citizens to no longer have to face the daily horrors of the Calamity and would visually signal a new era of peace. The Hateno Representative suggests a monument to those who fought at the Battle of Fort Hateno. The Sheikah Representative suggests replacing the faded and tattered banners in Hyrule Field with new ones. The Zora Representative suggests removing the malice pylons that surround Hyrule Castle. The Rito Representative questions how this would be done. The Goron Representative suggests a survey team, and the Chair agrees. The Representative from Tarrey Town suggests covering the pylons “with flowers or something.” The Champion of Hyrule questions if flowers can be grown on malice pylons. The Representative from Tarrey Town emphasizes that she said, “or something.”

The Chair recommends removing the disabled guardians and transporting them to the Great Plateau, where they can be contained and studied by Sheikah researchers. The Rito Representative questions how this would be done. The Chair suggests the aid of Vah Rudania. The Hateno Representative questions the wisdom of using the Divine Beasts, symbols of the Calamity's destruction, in an effort to remove reminders of Calamity Ganon. The Representative from Tarry Town suggests covering Vah Rudania with flowers. The Champion of Hyrule reminds the committee that the Divine Beasts were instrumental in Ganon’s defeat and that the majority of the representatives arrived on Vah Medoh. It would be a disservice to the former Champions’ spirits to not treat them with respect. The Representative from Hateno argues that it would serve the former champions' memories best by not parading the beasts around. The Tarrey Town Representative announces that she loves parades. The Zora Representative points out that Vah Ruta is the most beautiful memorial and maybe the other Divine Beasts could be memorials as well. The Rito Representative threatens to remove the Zora's Domain from Vah Medoh's trade circuit.

9\. Motion from the Hateno Representative to walk all four Divine Beasts into the sea.

The Champion of Hyrule uses some vulgar language.

The Chair calls for a recess.


	4. The 1st Meeting

Deltan sat on the small hill near the camp, Vah Medoh behind her like a hulking shadow. She had a bag of salted, roasted acorns in her hand, and she jerked her chin when Rhondson wandered up, inviting her fellow Gerudo to have a seat next to her. Rhondson was just pregnant enough that lowering herself to the ground involved some groaning. It might be hard to get back up, but once she was sitting, it was kind of pleasant. Together they sat under the chilled sky, half hidden in the tall grass.

After a moment of silence, Deltan sighed and said, "That went almost exactly as I expected."

"Really? I think it went well."

They fell silent as Link and Zelda slipped into the closest tent, determination on bother their faces. When they lit the lantern inside, it illuminated their silhouettes with surprising clarity. Both Gerudo sat taller, suddenly at attention. "This should be good," Deltan said.

Sure enough, Link seemed angry. Surprisingly angry given the calmness he was known for. They couldn't hear what was said, but body language made that unnecessary. Link threw his hands in wide gestures, encompassing all of the country, pointing off into the distance before scraping a hand through his hair. Zelda held up her hands to calm him, but something he said had her pull back, then plant a hand on her hip and lean forward to set him straight. Link paced, only a few steps in either direction, a hand still rubbing at his head.

"What are you doing?" They snapped up to see Teba, looking down at them with disapproval.

"Dinner theater." Deltan held out her bag of acorns in offering.

With a huff to show he thought this was excessively childish and was only in it for the food, the Rito Representative sat beside them and held out a wingtip for some snacks.

They watched for a moment, crunching away together.

"Do you think he's more mad about the task force," Rhondson asked, "or about the Hateno Representative wanting to get rid of the Divine Beasts?"

"Definitely the Divine Beasts," Teba said.

"Yeah. I don't think anything less could get his dander up. Not this much."

Rhondson shook her head. "That was a foolish thing to say."

"I suppose it makes sense from his perspective," said Teba. "It's not like Hateno will get their own Divine Beast."

"But it's also not like Hateno's had one looming over them for the past hundred years. How many people did Vah Medoh shoot out of the sky? And you're not trying to get rid of her."

"Of course not! She's an invaluable asset. Now that she's tamed. Throwing her away would be idiotic."

"Hateno won't have a Champion."

"They have Link!" Deltan argued. "And Link is the only person we know who can shut them down if necessary. Well, I suppose Zelda could too if she put her mind to it, and they have her too."

"Do you think Hateno's ever see one in action?" Rhondson asked.

Deltan turned from the shadow play in the tent to look at her. "Are you suggesting a demonstration?"

Rhondson shrugged. "Could it hurt?"

"It most certainly could," said Teba. "But it could also prove how valuable they are."

Rhondson turned back to the show. "Something to think about then."

Deltan smiled. "What's this then? The Tarry Town Representative making an effort to participate? Are you actually going to make a motion?"

"I haven't been living up to my potential as a distraction. I need to up my game tomorrow."

"You do provide much needed entertainment." Deltan suddenly sat bolt upright. "Oh. Here we go."

With a push at his shoulders, Zelda shoved Link down into sitting on the edge of their cot, and with a toss of her hair over one shoulder, she climbed into his lap.

All three spectators leaned forward.

Zelda took his face in both hands and descended on him in a kiss that smashed their two shadows together. His hands flew out in surprise. A beat later, he grabbed at her back, hauling her closer until they both arched against each other.

"Wooo!" "Get him, girl!" "Show that voe who's boss!" "Zel-da! Zel-da! Zel-da! Zel-da!"

The figures in the tent tore apart, snapping around to face the cheering voices and finally noticing the full display of their shadows thrown against the wall of their tent. Link ducked to the side, forcing Zelda to throw out an arm to keep her balance on his lap. The tent went dark as the lantern was extinguished.

"Boo!" "Hiss!" Deltan threw a couple acorns, which didn't make it far enough to hit the tent canvas.

Rhondson sighed. "Probably for the best. It's not like I want to watch that voe grope his way around."

The Gerudo Representative made a squeezing gesture in the air. "Honk, honk."

They threw their heads back and cackled.

Teba shifted in discomfort until Rhondson offered him more acorns, tilted her head to the side in thought, and said, "How disruptive would it be if I really pushed for my flower idea?"

"Very."

"Fantastic."

#

Zelda is absolutely shocked when Rhondson groans her way into the meeting house the next day with Deltan and Teba carrying visual aids for her use. They've taken pages from a book, glued them together to form a larger page, then drawn on them in coal that stands out over the graying text. Teba swiftly nails the images to the wall, then offers Rhondson a curt nod and takes his seat.

Rhondson rubs the small of her back. "Okay. So. I'm going to give a presentation. I make a movement—"

"A motion," Zelda corrects, rubbing her temple.

Rhondson rolls her eyes. "Fine. I _make a motion_ that we take Vah Rudania. We cover her with flowers. See, like this picture. So she's all pretty and not at all scary. Then we bring her down to Necluda. See here on this map I drew? There, she'll pave the road from Dueling Peaks to Fort Hateno. Like this picture Rohan drew."

Rohan's picture is more child-like than Rhondson's. There are stick people with their hands thrown in the air, happy to be standing next to a road, which admittedly seems to have some detailed instructions written in small Goron script and shows some of the layering that would be involved.

"Apparently, Vah Rudania can crunch up rock and stomp it down and then _bam!_ Smooth road for carts to travel and—I don't know—races or whatever. He says it's also possible to do some artistic stuff in the pavement. If you look real close here, there's a little picture of a bird? That could be nice. But anyway. Repaving the road could—" Rhondson sighs and barely holds back from rolling her eyes again. "—improve trade into Central Hyrule. Specifically from Hateno since—"

"—Since Hateno isn't on Vah Medoh's route," Teba says, slipping in before Rhondson can say something scathing about Hateno. "We want to make it easy for them to reconnect with the rest of Hyrule, so a road seems a good place to start."

Rhondson snaps and points at him. Then she looks to the rest of the committee to see what they think. 

It's a ridiculous plan. The road from the Dueling Peaks to Fort Hateno is completely passable in its current state and it's low on the list of pressing construction projects. Yet Zelda's mind churns with possibilities. The road work would be close enough to Hateno for the curious among them to witness it, for them to see the good the Divine Beasts can do. Is that really enough reason to put off the bridge projects?

"Oh! Also," Rhondson says, "while she's there, Vah Rudania can pick up the disabled guardians all along the route and carry them away so we don't have to look at them."

 _That_ 's enough reason to put of the bridge projects.

Blatchery Plain and the area to the east of Dueling Peaks. They both have hordes of guardians strewn about. She could start to set up the new tech lab she envisioned. It would clear the way for Zelda to leave Hateno by road without having a panic attack. She fights back an embarrassed blush at the thought of who in the room could possibly know about that. No, they're probably just feeding off her suggestion from yesterday to move the guardians to the Great Plateau.

"I don't have a budget or anything, but we—me and Deltan and Teba, and kinda Rohan—figured we could use this next month to prove that the Divine Beast can do what we claim, and use that time to come up with a budget. Also we can figure out how to put flowers on her. That part's important. So I propose we have our next meeting in Eldin so we can all see the sample road we're going to make."

Sidon makes a concerned noise.

Link speaks up. "There's an area just north of the mountain. It's not too hot, and there's a spring there."

"By Gut Check Rock?" Rohan asks.

"Exactly."

"Hmmm. That could work, goro."

Link turns to Zelda. He looks almost hopeful. 

Honestly, Zelda is too.

Sheclears her throat. "Well, it seems that Hateno and the Sheikah have the most to gain from this. What do you think?"

"It's...a start," Cado says.

Reede is sitting back in his chair, his arms folded over his chest. Everyone has been pointedly not looking at him throughout the presentation, but now all focus turns to him. He looks around and snorts. "This is obviously an attempt to wear us down and change our minds."

Teba's voice is low and gruff as he says, "If you don't want it, we'll leave you to your isolationism, stop trying to coddle you, and actually get some work done."

Rohan raises his hand. "Seconded."

"We are not abandoning whole regions of Hyrule," Zelda says.

"Why not?" Deltan asks.

Rhondson throws her hands in the air. "I've already put this presentation together!"

"You're all being quite rash," Sidon says.

Zelda raises her voice. "The Representative from Hateno's concerns are...valid."

Teba scoffs, but Zelda speaks louder.

"If we can relieve those concerns and move forward together, we will be stronger in the end. We will not turn our backs on one group for disagreeing with majority. That is hardly the way to begin our efforts to work together. It's a terrible precedent. If we start this way, then who's next?" She glares at them all. No one looks apologetic, but they are at least quiet.

"Mubs, Lurelin is interested in trading with Hateno, correct?"

"Very."

"Deltan, the Gerudo are as well?"

Deltan admits, "Yes."

"Reede, does that at least interest you, even if the Divine Beasts don't?"

"Of course, but—"

"And the Zora's aqueduct technology, which could improve your crop yield, and the Rito's cold weather clothing, which—I'm sorry to say—are superior to your own? Does any of that interest you?"

He flounders for a moment, and comes back with, "Who's going to pay for all this? The Zora? The Rito? Supposedly it's to benefit us, but we don't want it and won't pay for it."

Zelda's eyes slip to Link, who nods ever so slightly. She pulls herself straighter and says, "As a concerned resident of Hateno, I will pay for it. At least for the demonstration by Gut Check Rock."

Reede gives her a patronizing smirk. "I don't think you know how much these kinds of things cost."

"And I don't think you know how much money I have."

"Oh!" Sidon says. "That's quite true! Delightful!"

Reede narrows his eyes first at Sidon, then at Zelda, trying to figure out if he should believe them. 

Mubs cuts in to say, "I think the motion could be articulated differently. _I_ make the motion that we use Vah Rudania to build a test road north of Eldin to see if such an endeavor is possible in other areas of Hyrule."

"Isn't that what I said?" Rhondson asks.

"No."

"Yes, it is."

"I'm saying, let's just do the test case and see how it goes. Right?" She gives Reede an encouraging look.

And now he's squinting at Mubs in betrayal. "You're all trying to bully me."

"We're making your options clear," Zelda says. "Your goals for Hateno align with the goals of everyone else at this table. The Tarrey Town Representative has generously offered a way to make those goals accessible despite the fact that you refuse to join Vah Medoh's trade route. Rhondson is offering you an olive branch using the tools at her disposal. I'm not convinced anyone will give you a second offer."

"We shouldn't be using those monsters."

Zelda lifts her voice. "Do I have a second on the Hateno Representative's motion to walk the Divine Beasts into the sea?"

A thick silence settles over the table. 

She lets it stretch.

Finally, she says, "The motion fails. Do I have a second on the Lurelin Representative's motion to build a road near Gut Check Rock with the aid of Vah Rudania to see if such construction is viable?"

Again, there's silence, no one quite sure if they want to go through with the project if Hateno will just continue to behave poorly. There are more pressing issues they could be dealing with after all. 

Zelda stares Reede down. Waiting. Letting him feel it as the opportunity slips away from him.

His shoulders sag. He refuses to meet her eyes as his hand slowly raises. "I...second the motion. But only to see if it's viable."

"All those in favor?"

"Aye!"

"Opposed?"

"..."

"The motion passes."

The whole room heaves a breath, and Sidon claps his hands together. "Excellent! I move we take a recess. My people have put together a delightful lunch!"

"Seconded," Link says. She can feel his eyes on her, and she know that looking at him right now would be a mistake.

Everyone stands before she can ask for a second or call a vote on the recess, so she gives up momentarily on trying to follow protocol. She waits for everyone to leave, intending to drop her face in her hands and hyperventilate a bit. 

Instead, the second they're alone, Link lunges for her. His mouth seals tight and insistent over hers, one of his hands on her jaw, the other braced on the back of her chair. He slips out of his seat and onto his knees to crowd into her space.

She lets his enthusiastic approval clear her anxiety from her mind, but then pulls back enough to give him a look. 

"I like it when you're like that," he says. He's a bit breathless.

"Are you going to do this every time I get assertive? Because if so, this is not going to work."

"Or it'll work great." He kisses her again, one of his arms wrapping around her back and tugging her closer.


	5. Before the 2nd Meeting

Cado kindly offers to escort the Hateno delegation home. It is severely out of the Sheikah's way, especially since Vah Medoh is headed straight to Kakariko after the meeting and will probably beat them by several hours. Zelda's not sure this is the best idea, because the Sheikah will probably try to convince the Hateno delegation to loosen up and the Hateno delegation will not appreciate it. 

"Let them," Link says before she can turn down their kind offer. "We need a break from Reede, and we've got better things to do."

Cado nods sagely.

"Also, Cado's trying to suck up to me about the army thing."

Cado blusters that he was not trying anything of the sort. The Sheikah are natural protectors and see it as their duty to defend their fellow countrymen. 

Unlike the self-centered Gerudo, who didn't even think to offer.

Link rolls his eyes and walks away. 

Zelda gives Cado her blessing to escort the Hateno delegation home.

#

The first thing on Zelda's long list of objectives is to make a withdraw from the royal treasury. After all, she needs to fund a road, and people are clearly beginning to doubt that she has the means. (Honestly, the Gorons might just do the road near Eldin for free, but it seems unethical for her to take advantage of that.)

When she first mentioned this to Link months ago, he refused to meet her eye and kept putting her off with "Maybe later." She assumed he was worried that she wouldn't want to return to the castle (and she doesn't), but it needs to be done.

“I just..” he finally said. “The castle was picked over pretty well. Maybe you used to have a treasury. But I'm not sure anything will be left when we get there."

She really didn't want to say her reasoning aloud, but she also wanted to put the conversation to rest. "Link, I was aware of the patrol routes of every guardian. I was aware of every person who slipped onto the castle grounds, and I was aware of every object they touched." She knew where they fell in the courtyard, and she knew how long they lay there before their bodies decayed, and she knew when the next scavenger came upon the pile of bones and claimed a royal broadsword from among the remains for their own. "Trust me when I tell you that no one found the treasury." She smiled at him then, teasing in hopes of brushing away the horrors of the castle. "Besides, _you_ didn't find it. And you were one of the more thorough scavengers."

He'd looked away in embarrassment. 

So it was decided.

The entrance to the treasury is in her father's study, which is luckily close to the shrine by the docks. Link only needs to clear out the monsters from the docks and the library, and they'll be ready to return.

Easy. Just the dark docks with its haunting wind over abandoned and rotten crates. Just the lizalfos in the library that sharpen their claws on the hanging banners. He would dispose of those, and she would be ready to return to the site of her imprisonment where the air smelled of sulfur.

Easy. 

Link suggests that she spend the morning in Goron City, where the Gorons can distract her in the forge. He suggest that she spend the morning at the Hateno Tech Lab, where she can fight with Purah and lose herself in her programming. 

But in the end, she leaves with Vah Medoh and the delegates getting a ride aboard the Divine Beast. It's not that she would feel more comfortable having a panic attack in front of Amali than she would anyone else but Link, or that she knows Amali will be the most capable of giving her tough love, or that Amali is one of the few people who knows what it means to her to return to the castle, but also doesn't _know_ what it is to run from a rain of fire from the sky as walls are blown apart around her. No, it's not that. It's that she really needs to borrow something from Kass.

"Great!" Link says, giving her a blinding smile that she knows is a front. "Have fun. I'll see you this afternoon." He kisses the corner of her lips and pulls away before her shaking hands can grab at his sleeves.

The moment he warps away, Amali is asking her to look at Medoh's third motor, which is a bit sluggish. Zelda climbs into the hollows of the bird's wing and readjusts some wiring where the tubes have been crushed, cutting the flow of data liquid to the propeller, and Zelda lets the roar of the machinery drown out the bubbling of malice that swelled and spread like a liquid if observed for long enough.

Amali has her shift one of the crates on the lower level, because Medoh is pulling to the right. Medoh is not pulling to the right, but Zelda throws her weight against the crate and shoves it across the floor, and she doesn't think of how the lizafos would slip off the docks and lie so still in the black water that they were nearly invisible.

Amali has her help unload in Kakariko, handing her a cargo manifest and telling her to make sure the correct crates get removed. Zelda directs the unloading, unstrapping crates and finding the right boxes and directing people stronger than herself. She doesn't think about how the roof over the library crumbled and let in the rain until the books and the thick, red carpet turned to mulch.

Amali has her sort the mail from Kakariko into the correct bags for delivery in Gerudo Town, Rito Village, Tarrey Town. And Zelda doesn't think about the scavenger who stood before the shrine and looked up at it in awe, and how his face slackened as he fell with a jagged spear in his back. She pictures him with Link's face. She sees his blood pour out of him as he lies on the ground.

"Zelda?"

She startles and turns to Kass. That someone so large and brightly colored snuck up on her is a sign of how poorly she's doing. Her hands are empty. She's done sorting the mail.

"You wanted to borrow something?"

"Oh! Yes. Yes, I was hoping—if you felt comfortable and it's not a terrible inconvenience—if I could borrow some kind of musical instrument from you. Your daughters told me you had a collection."

"I'd be honored. What are you looking for?"

"Hopefully a lyre. But I've played a few other things." Briefly.

He nods and leads her into Medoh's head, where he's turned one of the alcoves into a storage space. There are two bookshelves full of sheet music, oddly bound and nonuniform in size. All the books are tied down with leather straps, so they don't shift as Medoh moves. There's a pipe organ wedged between the bookshelves, its pipes reaching upward to the nets and straps and hooks that hold dozens of instruments in place. She spots a mandolin and a whistle and a tambourine. Big drums and short drums and drums shaped like hour glasses. A gourd covered in a mesh of beads and multiple violin bows. A set of chimes tinkles softly like the laughter of a fairy. The bronze of a sousaphone catches the light.

Kass launches into the air and perches on one of the nets, which shifts under his weight. His gray claws grab at the ropes, and he unclasps something from the wall. A moment later, he's back in front of her and presenting her with a lyre.

Back before Zelda's mother died and her father gave up forcing her to practice, Zelda's lyre was gilded in gold. This one is made from a tortoise shell. Her old lyre had a row of twelve strings, but this one seems to have at least twenty, and then a second row of sympathetic strings beneath. She suddenly realizes exactly how long it's been since she's even held a lyre, and what a terrible idea this is and how much she's about to embarrass herself in front of one of the greatest musicians of the age. 

Kass asks her some questions about diatonic tuning that she can't answer. He then inspects the instrument for a moment and asks her if B flat is an acceptable key. That sounds familiar, so she says yes. He then proceeds to tune the strings, tightening and tightening until she cringes in fear that they might snap. He loosens a string and removes it completely. "We'll just ignore that one," he says, then continues on as if that's not strange. A few strings later, he does it again. When he's finished, he strums out a quick scale, zips through a jingle of a tune, and strums three chords, _Bing Bang Bong_. He nods in satisfaction and holds the instrument out to her.

She almost doesn't want to take it.

It's larger in her arm than she remembers her old one. It fits differently against her chest. The strings feel closer together. "B flat is here," he says, reaching out and plucking two strings. The octave rolls through the air. Zelda tries to memorize where they are, as if it means anything to her.

It's horribly embarrassing as she plucks out her thin waltz. It’s entirely trial and error, and maybe she started in the wrong place? She finally gets the first phrase right (right-ish) and feels confident enough to straighten her shoulders, and finally notices that Kass is staring at her.

She quickly lowers the instrument. "I'm so sorry. It's been a long—"

But he holds out a wing to stop her, shaking his head as he pulls out his accordion. He plays the tune back to her, and to her horror, she has to explain that the song doesn't actually sound like that, but instead she's just been messing up a section. He doesn't seem that bothered to hear it, and corrects himself seamlessly.

Then they're playing together, Zelda's tune hesitant and thin, Kass' accompaniment swelling around her. Thank the Goddess it's a simple song. And short. And she won't have to play it well.

When she's feeling less embarrassed, Kass' eyes are gleaming and he asks, "Do you know any other songs from before the Calamity?"

Sort of? She hums what she remembers for him, and he guesses well enough at the parts she can't remember. She leads him through a song she knows about rain. It’s repetitive enough that even she can play along with it, and Kass makes it into a game, turning it into a round and rolling the tune through a half dozen variations that almost have her laughing. He brings the song to an end with an elaborate flourish and thin applause breaks out behind them. The girls rush forward and twitter that they want to learn it too, singing it back to their father, and Zelda steps out of the cloud of flying feathers, stepping back into an arm that loops around her waist.

He whispers into her ear, "Having fun?" And she spins on Link so fast that she nearly drops her lyre. She tucks it under her arm to scramble her hands over his face and chest and arms, looking for blood and bruises and singes. His shoulder is a bit dirty, as are his boots, but he seems unharmed. Her hands are back on his face, holding him still so she can check his eyes for emotional damage. He gives her a soft, reassuring smile, and she heaves a deep breath. Which is how she gets a whiff of him, and the stuffy, dank smell of crumbling stones, and she shudders so hard that he takes hold of her waist to hold her up.

"Okay?" he murmurs.

She can't close her eyes. The memories will come if she closes her eyes. So she keeps them wide open and locked on his face as she nods.

"Should I get a bath before we go?"

"No. That would be ridiculous. The whole place will smell this way anyway." Oh, this is not going to go well.

He hums, considering her for a long moment. "I want to get something in town first. Want to come with?"

She waves to Kass, who is trying to direct the girls into singing the rain song all at once instead of singing it at all different times, and she clutches the lyre so her trembling hands don't drop it. Link eats lunch on their way into town, one of his arms trapped by her own as she clutches it to her chest and the other arm holding a meat and mushroom skewer. She ought to ask how his trip was. It's rude not to ask. It's dangerous to assume. Instead she squeezes his hand tighter and he squeezes her back, his cheek puffed out as he chews.

He heads to the general store and restocks on arrows and buys some butter for good measure. Zelda's too distracted to really pay attention as Link tells Trissa about how the meeting went. Link doesn't seem to mind. He can carry a conversation by himself. 

She's thinking of how it's at most one hundred steps from the shrine to the secret entrance to the treasury, and she can make it one hundred steps. She will count. That's what she'll focus on. And suddenly, Link's holding something under her nose, jerking her from her plans.

"What do you think of this one?"

It's a fat, bright red candle that smells overwhelmingly of cherries.

She winces and pulls back. "It's a bit much."

He puts his nose right in it and sniffs. Then coughs. "Yeah." He grabs another one, this one a warm yellow. Again, he sticks his nose straight into it. "This one's good too." He holds it out like she should stick her face in it too, and she pushes it back a bit before taking a hesitant inhale. It smells of honey. And maybe vanilla. It's still far too strong, and she's not having it in their house. Link's moved onto the next one, which is supposed to smell like melon, but doesn't really. It smells like the idea of melon. Link says it's not strong enough and puts it back. He next tries an absolutely heinous one that smells of violets and the court ladies who wore too much perfume. It makes her eyes water.

He ends up with the honey one, and Zelda doesn't want to know what he plans on doing with it. 

She's shaking as they leave the store, and he has to guide her to the middle of the street and wrap his arms around her. 

"If you tell me what to do, I can go myself."

She shakes her head.

"Okay." He says. "Okay, close your eyes." He wraps her tight in his arms, and she ducks her forehead to his ear and squeezes her eyes shut. She clutches at the lyre trapped between their chests, and he enfolds her, tight and secure. They warp. The moment her feet touch the ground, her mind goes blank with terror. The air is hot and humid, and there's the lapping of the water and the rush of the wind through ruins, and she can hear the fizzle-pop of malice, hear the rushing in her ears as the Calamity laughs and laughs and laughs and laughs.

"Zel. Breathe." The words are sharp enough that she gasps in a breath. And it smells so strongly of honey that she gags and jerks back. Her eyes snap open.

Link is bathed in blue light from the shrine. Blue, not the pink glow of malice. 

He waves the candle under her nose again, and again she snorts and rears back. 

Then she grabs it from him and holds it to her face so the smell can permeate every breath she takes. It coats the roof of her mouth.

He grins at her and shifts around, and before she knows it, they're walking.

The tunnel's fine. The tunnel's fine. The tunnel's—lit every ten feet with spots of glowing luminous stone. It's like a trail, grabbing at her eye and drawing her to the next spot in the dark. Then the next.

"What—"

She spins to look at him, and he smiles at her, looking a bit pleased with himself. "I thought this would be surprising."

"It is," she says dumbly. Link did this. He knew it would help. Even through her shaking, affection for him bubbles up in her chest.

"Ready?"

"For what?"

Another step, and they're in the library, and with the sun streaming into the room, any luminous stones would no longer glow.

She's dizzy. The carpet squishes under her feet and she can feel the Calamity's breath on her face and arms. But there's blue sky through the hole in the roof, and it's disorienting. There's a bird chirping? Link's hand is warm on her waist. And then they're in her father's study.

His destroyed study.

A bookshelf has toppled, and his chair is on its side on the floor. There are papers everywhere. She can see the chair upright, see him sitting there, his back to her as he admonishes her. She's not even worth looking up from his work. But now that work is in ruins on the floor.

"Zelda. The entrance. Where's the entrance?"

She did this. It's all her fault.

"Zelda, look at _me_."

They're all dead. She killed them all with her uselessness, her inadequacies. She killed her father. She killed her friends. She sees the papers fall the way they did the time she threw them off his desk in a selfish, childish tizzy so he would _look at me_.

Link's mouth seals over hers. It's hard and warm, and Link isn't like this in her memories. She clutches at him, at the idea of him, here in the future, her fingernails biting into his shoulders, tears streaming down her face. He pulls her against his chest, and she forces his mouth wider. She's drowning, drowning, and the only thing that will save her is to devour him. Her back presses to a wall, and she kisses him harder, her hands clinging to his shirt as he presses a circling thumb to her breast until she's dizzy and gasping into his mouth, until she arches more fully into his hand, and their lips come unsealed, and she lifts her face to the sky.

He groans, "Zelda."

"Yes."

"Where's the entrance?"

The question comes from far away, and her answer comes from even father.

He reclaims her mouth, and she bites into his lower lip, and he pivots them from the wall and crashes them against the bookcase. She needs more of him, needs both his hands on her instead of one of his hands fumbling against the side of the bookcase. With a deep, echoing _clunk_ , the bookcase shifts, then swings in, and they half topple into a dark tunnel, where his hands are back on her, and once again she can breathe. Breathe in the dark untainted by death. Breathe as he sears open mouthed kisses to her neck. Breathe as he braces her tight with a forearm at the small of her back. Breathe as his thumb drags lower, tracing the lower hem of her underwear through her pants. Breathe as he rubs, stronger, faster, more, _yes_!

He holds her as she gasps. Her whole body tingles, and her head is fuzzy with endorphins, her knees weak. He's holding her up now, his forehead pressed to hers, and when she opens her eyes, she can see the worry that he tries to hide.

She loosens her hold on his shoulders until she can clasp her hands behind his neck.

“Okay?” he asks.

She nods. It’s easy to attribute the remaining jitters to aftershocks.

"Did...I overstep?" he asks. "I wasn't trying to take advantage, just trying to—"

"Distract me?"

"I don't think you could hear me."

She nuzzles closer and leans more heavily against him. "It seems you've discovered a new way to pull me back into the moment."

" We're not going to do that again though, okay?"

She snorts, offers him a tired, teasing look. "It's absolutely scandalous that we did that in my father's office."

He cracks a smile too. "What would his grumpy ghost say?"

"Something grumpy."

She kisses him again. Chaste this time.

"You dropped your turtle," he says. "I'm gonna—" He jerks his head back towards the office.

She nods and releases him, and a second later, he's back, pressing the lyre into her hands. He's carrying the candle, which has a serious dent in the side, and a journal that he tucks away.

It’s not far before the tunnel opens into a dome of a cave, lit bright with glowing crystals of blue and white. In the center, there’s a round platform with a symbol of the triforce carved into it. On the far side is a wide, round door, sealed in stone.

The royal treasury.

She checks her lyre for damage, then steps up onto the platform. Her hands are still shaking, and it’s absurd that after all that she can still be embarrassed about playing a song in front of Link.

She hits a wrong note and decides to play the song through to practice, during which she hits four other wrong notes, and fumbles the simple rhythm so badly that the door most likely would not accept it. That’s okay, it’s practice. But the next time through goes poorly as well, as does the next and the next, and then Link’s at her side giving her the most skeptical look she’s ever seen on him. Her face burns with shame. She pulls the lyre protectively close to her chest. “I’m rusty, okay? Go away for a few minutes, and I’ll work it out.”

Instead, he takes the lyre from her arms, and she sputters out a protest while he holds it up to the light and plinks at a few of the strings.

“It can’t be that difficult. Give me an hour and I can—“

“Is this tuned funny?”

“What? Yes.”

His eyebrows furrow. Then he tucks the instrument against his chest and elbow, and Zelda’s embarrassment is turning to irritation now, so she reaches to snag it back—

And freezes as he strums out the first phrase of the song.

His notes ring more true than hers did. And yet his frown deepens as he goes, slipping easily through the song’s bridge and reaching the high notes with easy grace. The second he’s done, he shoves the lyre away from himself, holding it out at arms reach to glare at it as if it has a foul odor.

The door before them shakes, then grinds as the circular door rolls into the wall.

“How...how did you do that?” she asks.

He shakes his head like he’s trying to dislodge the answer somewhere in his brain. “I...I don’t know. I just did.”

This is the kind of thing that used to make her despise him. But now he looks so upset that she takes the lyre from him with a soft smile, trying not to let the itch of disquiet settle into her mind. “How fascinating. And fortuitous.”

He doesn’t answer. He just adjusts his stance and fiddles with his bracers and reaches over his shoulder to squeeze the hilt of his sword to comfort himself.

“You’ve opened the treasury!” She says, a bit too loud, a bit too bright. She grabs his arm and tugs him into the cave, filled with mounds of gold and rupees and jewels that shimmer in the light.


	6. Before the 2nd Meeting

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Big thanks to Jenseits_der_Sterne on this one.

Out of the long to-do list with which Zelda leaves the first meeting of the Hyrule Rebuilding Committee, she did not expect most of her time to be taken up with flowers.

She checks in on the road building team in North Eldin every day, dropping off Link and picking him up. But mostly, she's traveling back and forth between Hateno and Goron City, combining Hateno's textiles with Eldin's metalwork, designing what is essentially a harness that will drape around Vah Rudania's neck, back, and haunches. The harness will be covered in (at current estimates) 146 sky blue flowers, each one six feet across. It's like the world's largest lei.

At first, she found the task beneath her. She could be doing so many other things. But no. She's doing flower arrangements and picking fabric colors. Meanwhile, Link gets to stomp around with Rudania and mix vats of hot tar. It's not at all fair, and she only agrees to this division of labor because Link would be lost producing the flowers.

At least, she felt that way until she realized the extent of the design challenge. The flowers have to hold their shape. They can't droop or they no longer look like flowers. And they can't be too heavy, and they can't restrict Vah Rudania's movements. So she collaborated with the Goron smiths and constructed thin wire frames over which blue fabric can be stretched. At the point where she's wiping sweat from her forehead as she stands over a forge, and leaves behind a streak of grease, she realizes that this is actually quite thrilling.

Then there's the problem where the fabric keeps catching fire and has to be treated with flame proof elixirs that effect the dye color, turning the cloth pink. She has to spend a glorious few days in the Tech Lab, mixing and measuring and straining, surrounded by bubbling mixtures and glassware.

Meanwhile, the road slowly stretches across a half mile arc north of Gut Check Challenge, the Blood Brothers cheering on the team as first one layer of road then another are pounded down into the ground. From somewhere they produce huge drums that they bang to the beat of Rudania's feet, in time with Yunobo as he stomps back and forth like a sumo wrestler from the Divine Beast's back.

Link takes a trip to the Bridge of Hylia and clears out the lizalfos there. He returns by lunch and mutters about how easy it is when he does the work himself, reiterating that he doesn't want to lead a strike team.

"You used to train the Royal Guard all the time. You were actually quite good at it."

He winces and pokes at his food. "Well, good for me, I guess."

"What I mean is that we've yet to find a skill you had Before that you've completely forgotten. I'm sure it will come back to you. Like riding a horse." Or, apparently, playing an instrument. But they're not talking about that.

His eyes light. "What if I take them all on, knock them all unconscious, and then leave and get the monsters myself. I can say it's my teaching method! And if they don't like it, they can get out. And also I did warn them."

"Please don't offend both the Gerudo and Sheikah in one afternoon."

He goes back to poking at his veggies, looking sullen and young.

She reaches for his hand. "If it helps, I don't think you'll need to do much training. They're already professional soldiers. You just need to lead them into battle."

"But that's the hard part. I don't know how to lead people. I know how to do it myself."

"Just try. If you're that terrible at it, I'm sure they'll replace you."

She can see the gears turning in his head, as if he's now made it his goal to fail spectacularly and plotting the most absurd way he can accomplish that.

"Link," she warns. "Please. How bad could it be?"

Zelda takes him to Lurelin just a few hours before Vah Medoh arrives. Amali has the Gerudo and Sheikah warriors aboard, and Zelda leaves Link there to rush back to Goron City and try the latest fabric cover she's made. It does not catch fire, and that's such a success that she has to run and show the team at the Gut Check Challenge. They stop what they're doing so they can all circle around and look at it. Yunobo strokes his fingers over the blue petals. He touches the tip of his finger to a stamen.

"It's beautiful," he breathes.

"You're going to make a hundred of these?" Fugo asks.

She cringes. "That is the idea. Now that I have it figured out, it's actually not that complicated. Perhaps some assistance and some division of labor would be in order."

"You should make them glow. You could use luminous stones."

"That would be nice," she hedges. "But it would add an additional step in construction. Not to mention that we'd have to mine the luminous stone. Then cut the stones into shape. And that would add to the cost."

"What about the paint?" Slergo asks.

"Paint?"

"Oo! Oo! Yeah!" Yunobo hops from foot to foot. "We have luminous stone paint, you could just—" He traces the curving edge of a petal with his fingers, too excited to speak. "You wouldn't need too much."

She warps back to Goron City to find some paint. She's starting to think that she might get her assigned work done with enough time to spend at least a few days back at the tech lab with her slate programing project. Link could even keep the slate those days.

She finds the paint with ease as it turns out to be made from the shavings from cut luminous stone, pieces too small to be useful. They mix it into a paste and give it to the children to draw on the ground or on each other the way the children of Castle Town used to make chalk drawings on the streets.

Things are going surprisingly well.

Or at least they are until she returns to Lurelin in the late afternoon to find a group of villagers huddled together and whispering with frowns on their faces. They're facing the beach, and her first thought is that another guardian has washed into the area.

Mubs turns as Zelda walks up, and the rest of the group turns to frown at both Mubs and Zelda.

"I—" Mubs says, "I really just wanted those monsters taken care of."

"And instead we have _this_ ," Kiana says, gesturing out towards the beach.

Zelda stretches up onto her toes to see the Shekiah and Gerudo standing on the beach just outside the village. They're in two separate groups, shouting at one another across a ten-foot-wide strip of sand between them. Link is standing in front of them, both hands planted on the back of his head.

Mubs turns to Zelda, giving her a pleading look.

Zelda's eyes narrow. If Link is messing this up on purpose, she is going to be very put out. She wouldn't put it past him to insert a single, well-placed word that he knew would set the two factions off and then stand back and stay silent and let them get so angry that they called the whole thing off. She sets her shoulders and marches up to him, bracing herself for the cheeky smirk he gets when he meddles for his own entertainment.

Her irritation stumbles as she gets a look at his face. His eyes are wide and his mouth is slack. He looks stunned. Lost. It reminds her of the moment under the shade of the Deku tree when she told him that she didn't used to love him. But that was brief—a blip before he pulled himself together. Now it's like he's been thrown off balance as is falling falling falling without finding his feet.

It's disconcerting to witness.

Hesitantly, she reaches out to rub his shoulder. "Link?...How is it going?"

He shakes his head slowly. His eyes dart back and forth between the groups, following their thrown insults like he's watching a tennis match. It seems the Gerudo are calling the Sheikah cowards for hiding themselves away in the shadows during the Calamity, while the Sheikah are accusing the Gerudo of abandoning Hyrule. The Gerudo have a fair bit to say about how the Hylians are not all there is to Hyrule and they had a Divine Beast along with a century-long dust storm to contend with and what was holding back the Sheikah from being heroes?

She slips between him and the beach, putting her back to the scene and turning to face him fully. "Has it been like this all day?"

He nods, his eyes still locked over her shoulder.

She takes a deep breath. "So what are your thoughts at this juncture?"

"Just...one really long, drawn out swear word."

"Look at me, Link."

He gives her a helpless look.

"You can always split them up. Treat them like two separate units and send them in opposite directions."

He thinks on that a minute. "Send the Sheikah east and the Gerudo west down the coast. And when they come back, I can say 'I told you so,' and send everyone home. At least the monsters around here will be cleared out."

Not ideal. But this state of affairs cannot be allowed to continue, not with an audience of Lurelin villagers who are losing faith in them with every passing moment.

He did, indeed, tell her so.

He heaves a sigh. "And then it'll be a big competition. Who got back first or who killed the most moblins. And they'll just keep on hating each other. And you'll be disappointed."

"No," she says gently. "I'll be—" She cuts herself off, because he's absolutely right, the best word is disappointed. Not in him, exactly. It won't be like he's failed her. It would just be a shame for this to drive a wedge even further between the two groups.

He's frowning over her shoulder again, his eyes locked on the fight that just seems to keep going. You'd think they would have run out of energy by now.

"Alright," she says, perhaps a bit too loudly. But at least his eyes snap back to hers. "What would be the opposite of splitting them apart?"

"Forcing them together? We could cuff one of each of them together and have them fight it out."

Zelda rolls her eyes. "Or..."

He blinks and the lost look on his face falls away. His eyebrows raise as he picks up on her idea. Suddenly compelled into action, he slips the slate from her hip and flicks through it as he marches towards his troops.

Oh. She's...not quite sure they are on the same page. This wasn't what—

She doesn't have time to realize what he's doing before he does it. Suddenly, he's holding a bomb up over his head and hurling it into the neutral ground between the two groups. At the peak of its arc through the air, he detonates it and it explodes with a _boom_ and a burst of blue light. Zelda squeaks, and the two factions fall back, grabbing up their weapons and spinning around for the source of the attack.

"Alright," Link shouts. His voice is loud but not commanding. It doesn't have the full tones that Zelda and her father and their generals were trained to use, tones she’s heard Link use Before, tones that would make his directions carry, that would pound his words against his troop's chests. "That's enough. Form two lines." He lifts both hands straight up in the air and brings them straight down in front of him, gesturing at the neutral space between the groups. They quickly form into lines. They do so quickly, almost as if they're trying to out preform the other group. Like they don't want to get another bomb thrown at them, although they all look more annoyed with that stunt than intimidated.

Zelda's heart is still pounding.

"Walk towards each other until you're facing someone from the other group."

They pick out their targets and glare at one another as they march forward. Then they turn to Link, hoping for his initial fighting-it-out idea.

Zelda really hopes he's not going with the fight-it-out idea.

"Okay. That's your new partner. We've got twelve teams. If you move more than twenty feet from your partner, you lose. If either of you gets hurt, you lose. The team that kills the most monsters wins. Clear?"

There's a beat of silence. Then one of the Sheikah says, "What?" as one of the Gerudo says, "No way."

"Yep. This is what we're doing."

Zelda's shoulders sag with relief. It's not what she had in mind, but it's not the worst idea.

"How am I supposed to remember whose team I'm on?" one of the Gerudo asks. "They all look the same."

The Sheikah take offense at that. To be fair, they are all in uniform with the lower half of their faces covered and their hair all pulled up into the same top-knot.

Link doesn't have an answer. He does have another bomb though. Just pulling it out is enough to make them all fall silent again.

Zelda steps up and says, "If you would be patient for a moment, we're going to get you identifying arm bands."

"Yeah. So. Like. One team over there. And one over there. And one—you know. Spread out a bit. Learn each other's names. Figure out each other's fighting styles because you're going to work together or you're going to lose."

"Lose what?" someone asks.

"The game I just made up," Link says.

"What does the winner get?"

He thinks for a second, then says, "Armaments from the Hylian Royal Guard."

Everyone looks skeptical but intrigued.

"If your behavior becomes too much of a problem,” Zelda says, “Link will send you home in disgrace. You have to explain yourselves to Impa and Captain Taeke."

Now they really have the troops’ attention.

Still they don't move until he throws his arms in the air and in exasperation shouts, "Go! I'll be back in an hour, and if you can't tell me your partner's name by then, I'm sending you home."

The groups grumpliy shift away from each other. A few of them start bickering immediately when the Sheikah partner wants to go left towards a rock and the Gerudo partner wants to go right into the shade of a palm tree. The few that manage to find their own spot are pushing the twenty-foot-limit rule as far as they can.

Link turns his back on them and stomps up the beach with Zelda at his heel.

"I _hate_ this," he says.

"I'm sorry. I—" She catches herself before expressing yet again that she'd thought he would be great at this. "I'm sorry."

He makes a grouchy noise.

"Why don't you sit down. Come up with a plan for where you'll send them. I'll scrounge up some arm bands."

He sighs and rubs at his head. "Thanks, Zel."

She squeezes his arm and hurries back to the small crowd that's been watching. "I'm in need of some fabric."

Somehow Zelda's job keeps coming back to fabric colors.

#

Kianna has a sail that was ripped apart in the last storm. Together they tear it into strips, and Zelda warps to Hateno as quick as she can to dye them. With twelve groups, some of them will have rather obscure colors.

She rushes back to Lurilen to find that Link is feeling much better. It might be because someone fed him while she was gone. It also helps that he's realized that he can now have some level of revenge on how they made his day difficult.

They make a circuit of the troops, handing out arm bands and taking down the groups' names. Link glares at them, and the Sheikah are deferential to that, but the Gerudo have no interest whatsoever in trying to get into the good graces of a Hylian voe who's not even old enough to drink. The Gerudo also seem to judge their Sheikah partners for showing so much subservience to Link and Zelda, and their disrespect only irritates the Sheikah more. But, remarkably, everyone is able to tell Zelda their partner's name. Low standards achieved.

As the sun sets, Link makes them rearrange their campsite so the new teams have to be next to each other, and this apparently ruins all their predetermined plans about who's sharing a tent with who. Carta and Donic are partners, but Carta is bunking with Fari and Fari's partner is Salis, who's sharing a tent with Homre, whose partner is Selina, and on and on. Link gives them a blank look and in frustration tells them to work together and figure it out. Then he walks away.

It's the kind of logistical puzzle that tugs at Zelda's need to fix things (they could just make a big circle around a central campfire—), but she holds herself back and lets Link handle it as he thinks is best.

They walk together towards the shrine. "I need to get them fighting things, right?" he says. "But—Goddess, I already cleared out everything around here. We'd have to walk for hours to get past Aris Beach." He rubs hard circles into his temples with both his thumbs. He's not looking at her, and she's not sure if he's talking to her either. "We should go inland. Yeah. There's monsters on the road to Lakeside Stable. There's that encampment across the river. There are those lizalfos. We could turn north and head up to the Spring of Courage. Yeah. That'd be a good practice. It wouldn't be clearing the coast like Mubs wants, but we can head back down and catch the coast road, and that'll pick up right around where I left off, right? I don't know. Does this make any sense?"

"That all makes perfect sense." She hides her shudder at his mention of the Spring of Courage. She hides her disappointment that they're splitting up again so soon. But he's not paying her enough attention to notice.

"Okay. Okay."

He's pacing, and it's so unlike him. She wants him to stop, and grabs his arms so he does.

"That's a fine idea, Link. I think you should take a deep breath now."

He follows her directions. His shoulders remain tense.

"You're doing well, Link. Everything is going to be okay."

He barks an unfriendly laugh, and she doesn't care for that either.

"Other people are supposed to be in charge of things. I just help out or give ideas or...moral support. I'm not supposed to be in charge. You're supposed to be in charge. I'm supposed to do what you tell me."

She has to suppress an eye roll at that. She puts on her most pompous voice. "Well then, I order you to take this team of trained warriors and clear the roads in Faron of all monsters." 

He finally looks at her after that. It's a pathetic look full of relief, and that's slightly irritating. It was _his_ plan!

"How are we going to meet back up?" he asks.

"I assume you'll take the slate, and then you'll return to me when you're done."

He shakes his head, his eyes darting around again. "I don't know how long this is going to take. I can't keep you trapped in Hateno for who knows how long. You've got work to do. You wouldn't even be able to hop on Medoh if something happened. How would you get backup? How would you get back up to Eldin?"

"Nothing's going to happen."

"But what if?"

"How about I check for you at the stable every evening like we've done before."

He shakes his head again. "You could check in at the stable, but you can't warp into the spring by yourself. It's crawling with monsters. This whole thing is a bad idea." He starts to pace again.

She pulls him to a stop. "It's a fine idea. We'll think of something else."

He blinks at her once, then grabs for her pockets. He's so out of sorts that she allows him to ransack her person without anymore protest than a frown, she lifts her elbows from her body to give him better access. Finally he comes up with the teleportation medallion. 

"What are you doing?"

"If this works, we can use it."

"But, we don't know how it works."

"We haven't tried it yet."

And that sounds more like Link.

He looks at it for about a second, then plants it on the ground and kind of shoves it. Suddenly, it bursts into a circle of blue light. He stands up with the medallion in his hand and looks down at the glowing symbol that stays there. It looks remarkably like the warp points at the base of the shrines. He does not look surprised at all.

She splutters, "How did you know to do that?"

He takes out the slate and holds it so she can see the map. There's a new warp point. 

"But what if it only makes one warp point?! We don’t know how it works! It you’ve wasted it—" 

He runs off until there are two houses between them, then warps himself back, reappearing right in front of her. His eyes are remarkably clear after his short victory.

He presses the slate into her hands and runs off towards the beach, where he kneels down and shoves the medallion into the sand. The warp point in front of her vanishes, and a new one appears on her map. She warps there and reforms in front of Link, who's grinning at her.

"It works," he says.

"That was hardly scientific," she mutters.

His grin grows. And she can't help but feel more relaxed that they're back to their usual dynamic. 

Even if he did take a _huge_ risk just _using_ the teleportation medallion twenty feet from a preexisting warp point.

"So," she says, "you will take the medallion, and I will take the slate. When you camp in safe territory, mark your position, and I will warp to you."

He nods, ducking his head again as his smile fades. "Yeah. Okay."

She eases her arms up around his shoulders and presses a kiss to his jaw. "If they fight, they fight. I'm sure you're right: they'll focus when it's time to kill monsters." She kisses his jaw again. "And I will still love you, even if you fail completely."

"You say that now..."

She laughs. But he doesn't join her, and she cuts herself off in confusion, pulling back to look at him. "Oh. Oh, you're...being serious."

The only answer she gets is a cringe.


	7. Chapter 7

Usually, Zelda wakes well before Link does. But today, she’s woken by a shifting on their small cot as Link pulls on his boots. Usually when it’s as hot as it is in Lurelin, Link would wear at least part of his Gerudo voe outfit to keep cool. But this morning, he’s in his Champion’s tunic. She watches as he tries his best to straighten his hair, adjusts his bracers, and stands to slip on his quiver and bow. He straps the Master Sword to his back.

“Are you leaving already?”

He turns and gives her a reassuring smile. “Nah.” He retakes his seat on the edge of the cot, angling to look at her, and says quietly. “I’m about to wake everyone up. We’ll need to eat and break camp before we leave.”

“Do you want me to see you off?”

He hesitates. There’s something pleading in the way he bites his lip, and she doesn’t know if that means please stay or please don’t watch me try to do this.

She stays and offers him her brightest smile after she kisses him goodbye. It doesn't seem to lift his spirits. She stands with the people of Lurelin as they wave the troop off.

Her work for the committee is at a standstill until Vah Rudania lays down the next layer of road. Until then, she decides to spend her time in Hateno. Purah and Symin finished off the third tube in her absence, but they thankfully stopped at that point. She spends some time checking Purah's work and adjusting the few last bends to the way they were supposed to go, much to Purah's annoyance. 

"I can throw you out, you know."

"I'll believe that when I see it," Zelda says, only half paying attention. She's bent so far into the top of the guidance stone that most of her weight is resting on her belly on the bowl's edge instead of her toes.

They barely get through a quarter of the fourth tube before Symin calls it a night. No new warp point has appeared on the slate map, and when Symin once again offers to let her sleep on the floor, she accepts immediately.

The next day, they find an error in the second tube that makes it impossible to set up a long stretch of the fourth. They have to remove and rework at least three feet of the second tube, squeezing their hands into spaces so tight that the bones in her hand squeeze together. Symin stretches how late he lets them work, but they don't finish before their fatigue makes them sloppy.

There’s still no activity on the slate map. She would have expected them to at least make it to Lakeside Stable by now. But if they’re taking their time and doing some team building, she supposed that it could take them a while. It’s not as if there’s anything too dangerous between Lurelin and the stable. 

Zelda hopes he isn’t having too terrible of a time.

She and the Sheikah manage to fix the second tube the next morning, and they’re about to get back to work on the fourth when Purah snaps, “What is that noise?!”

Zelda hadn’t really noticed it, but yes, there’s the sound of voices outside. It’s probably grown steadily louder over the past...

They all frown at each other, and Zelda slips down the ladder to investigate, Symin right behind her. They can’t see much from in front of the lab and hurry up to the top of the building, where Purah is already waiting for them with a pair of binoculars. The commotion is coming from down by the beach, where a ship is docked near the sand and a dozen people from Hateno are cheering.

"It's the ship from Lomei Labyrinth," Zelda says.

"There was a ship in the labyrinth?" Purah asks.

"No. The ship visited the labyrinth."

"I've never seen anything like it," Symin says.

Indeed, Zelda realizes that he probably hasn't. The ship is fifty feet long with two thin masts and distinctive triangular sails with swirling gold at the edges. It's nothing compared to the old Hylian warships, but since the Calamity, the largest boat she's seen was when they connected a few canoes together in Lurelin.

"Well," she says. "I suppose I should go greet our visitors."

Symin looks uncertain about that, and Purah complains about the delay it will cause in their programming. Zelda makes sure she's not too dusty before setting off down the hill.

The crew is unloading hefty woven baskets from the ship, handing them off into the smiling crowd, and Zelda's interest piques. With the seaside clear of monsters, they could very well form a secondary trade route between Lurelin and Hateno. They would need larger boats, but it seems someone has already reinvented how to do that. As she makes her way into the crowd, someone shoves a basket into her arms, and she doesn't see what else to do but follow the other villagers with baskets in their arms over to the side, where they're setting them into the sand.

Her curiosity gets the best of her, and she loosens the top of the basket to get a peek inside. She's expecting fish. She's not expecting the coiled arm of a guardian stalker.

"Scary, right?"

She snaps up to Amira, who deposits her own basket next to Zelda's. 

"There's an island full of them," Amira says. "They skitter around and shoot fire and climb up walls. But Captain Nell faces them. He battles them and defeats them one at a time, so someday we can take back the island."

Zelda quickly hides her skepticism. Zelda knows that she's not the most beloved resident of Hateno, and that contradicting Amira when she looks so happy would not be the best move. Even if the sailors are lying about how they procured the parts, it doesn't seem as if anyone is opposed to those parts being here. Perhaps she can convince the people of Hateno that the parts can be useful. Perhaps she can purchase some of the scavenged pieces, as it would certainly be easier than doing it herself.

She makes her way to the ship, which seems to be manned by three people. A large man hauls baskets up from below decks. A guardian claw is latched around his bicep like an arm band and a string of small gears hangs from one ear. There's a woman with a net draped around one hip and over her layers of skirts. As she hefts the baskets off the side of the ship into the arms of waiting villagers, the baldric across her chest flashes with the glint of several knives. And then there's the captain, who wears an ancient tricorn hat that might have once belonged to a Hylian admiral. He has a long coat with fraying embroidery and two spears and a sword strapped to his back. He leans easily against the taffrail as he speaks to a chuckling Reede.

"Reede!" Zelda bounces up to the side of the ship and beams up at him. "I had no idea you were letting guardian parts into town. That's fantastic news."

Reede's posture stiffens, and his eyes dart between her and the man he's speaking to in a way that makes her suspect that she's about to embarrass him in front of someone important.

Reede's voice is careful and stilted as he says, "Nell, this is Zelda. Zelda, this is Captain Nell."

Unlike Reede, Captain Nell looks delighted to see her. He vaults over the side and splashes into the knee deep water, sweeping his hat from his head and bowing dramatically. As he rises, he presses his hat to his chest, and his blond hair flutters in the sea breeze. “Zelda! A name like the open ocean. I know I’ve never had the pleasure of hearing such a name before. It would have rung in my ears like the wind, and I would have remembered it always.”

She doesn't quite know what to say to that. Captain Nell is a bit much to take in so suddenly.

She says, “Yes. Hello."

Reede warns, "I wouldn't if I were you, Nell. She's got a beau." He shifts in discomfort. "And he's got a sword."

"Ahhh. But I'm quite the swordsman myself." The captain presses his finger to the side of his nose and lowers his voice to a carrying whisper. "And our meeting can stay our little secret."

“Well, I'll most likely tell him," she says, getting this conversation back on track. "It's not every day someone delivers guardian parts to Hateno. Are these from the Lomei Labrynth?”

His eyes light. “You’ve heard of the cursed isle.”

She decides not to tell him that she saw him there last month. Instead, she says, “Yes. I work at the tech lab, and we would be very interested in buying whatever parts you salvage.”

"It's hardly salvage. We have to defeat the machines in combat first." He draws his sword with an elaborate twirl. She has to slip backwards a step. "Ah. I see you've noticed my sword."

Yes. Obviously. But that's beside the point.

"It's a rather famous blade, but—well—we won't speak its name." He winks at her.

"That's fascinating, but I'm interested in—"

The hilt of his sword catches the light. It's blue with a cross hatch pattern and a winged cross guard. She follows the blade’s movement as her words trail off. He smirks at her, and she takes in his whole look. His blonde hair. His earrings. His eclectic range of equipment and clothes.

Her eyebrows pinch together. From the deck, Reede groans, and she realizes that he wasn’t worried she’d embarrass him in front of this man, but that this charlatan will embarrass him in front of her. And that would be a positive step in their relationship except for the fact that this is _nonsense_.

She spins on him with her hands on her hips. "Reede!"

"It's his thing. You meet eccentric people every day, and they've all got weird things. He's not hurting anybody, and you know Link wouldn't care. Don't be mad."

"What are you doing with the guardian parts?"

Reede blinks. "Wait. That’s what you’re taking from this? If you're going to be mad, at least be mad about the right thing."

"Rest assured we will discuss the identity theft at length. _What are you doing with the guardian parts_?”

Reese’s eyes slide away from her.

"You're throwing it in the sea! I knew it!”

Nell says, "It's a beautiful ceremony to honor our fallen ancest—" as Reede waves a finger at her and says, "Your committee has no power here. Maybe you can keep your Divine Beasts to yourself, but you can't stop us from sending these monstrosities where they belong."

"The current takes them south, Reede! They're washing up near Lurelin. Is that where they belong? And the data ink—the blue liquid inside? It's toxic! It's poisoning the fish. We had to haul five of them off the reef a few months ago."

Reede stares at her.

"You do know I can use these parts to help Hateno? The legs from the stalkers would make excellent pipes for irrigation." She spins on Nell, “These are _valuable_. I don't have the time or the equipment that you seem to have to do the salvaging myself, and I would pay handsomely for someone to do exactly what you've done, except _not throw them in the ocean_ when you're done.” She spins back to Reede. "At least let me gut them properly so they're not a danger to the ecosystem before you hold your ceremony!"

He folds his arms over his chest. "I don't believe you."

"You can ask Mubs! Or ask Link when he comes back. I promise you I wouldn't lie about—"

"Not about that. About how they're useful."

"Shall I show you?" she demands.

He raises his eyebrows and gestures with a hand. _Go on then_.

She juts her chin into the air and turns on _Captain Nell_. "Where are the baskets with the legs?"

"The what?"

"The guardian legs. Long, metal tubes. Yea big around. I carried one already." She's already moving off towards the baskets, popping off the tops to take quick looks inside. The captain scrambles after her, flustered at her poor reception of his imitation Master Sword. Reede follows them at a more sedate pace.

Zelda finds six baskets of guardian legs and recruits _Captain Nell_ and two of the Villagers into helping her carry them. She marches them all to Reed's farm, where she drops her basket just outside the wheat field. She pulls the first leg from a basket and a wrench from her belt. Before the men have finished depositing the baskets, she has the foot removed and tugs the tubing out of its leg like pulling meat from a crab. She drops the foot with its attached wires back into the basket and lays out the hollow, bendable leg, before popping open the next basket and doing it again.

"What are you doing?" Reede asks.

"The guardian legs can work as pipe. I'm going to install a system for moving water to your crops. We can then expand on it to your neighbors."

"I thought you said the guardians were toxic. Now you want to pour poison on my crops?"

"The data liquid is poisonous," she says, detaching another foot. "Unless the tubes have exploded or leaked, the data ink will be contained. It's easy to tell when that's happened, and it's more likely to happen in the body of the guardian rather than the legs. There are fewer connections. And fewer wires."

She tears out the next foot to a rain of indigo flakes. She hisses and shakes her head, gingerly maneuvering the whole thing back over the basket. "See?" she says. "Obvious." Once contained, she takes a closer look and hums to herself. "This connection rusted. The tubing decoupled and spilled ink everywhere." She dumps the whole thing back in the basket and brushes off her hands. "But you're correct, we should take precautions. A diluted alcohol solution should remove any of the residue. We can most likely clean this ruined one as well, but I wouldn't suggest using it for your crops." She removes the next foot, which is in better shape. "We can, however, take that leg to the ancient furnace and use the metal to seal the sections of pipe lengths together. They come apart at the joints and the furnace gets hot enough to work with the guardian material. Then, of course, we'll need a pump the move the water from the stream to your field. The same model we have at our house should work here, and I've rebuilt it so many times now that it shouldn't take more than a few days with some assistance." She has all the hollow legs lined up now and plucks one end off the ground to inspect it. To herself, she says, "Yes. This should do nicely."

Reede doesn't say a word to stop her.

So Zelda spends the rest of the day at the forge with the tools the Gorons gifted her, sweating with her hair pulled back in a kerchief, her thick Goron gloves reaching up to her elbows. Captain Nell's crew brings her the largest, flattest rock they can find for an anvil. She pops apart the individual joints of the ruined leg and melts the rings until she can stretch them into rectangles and wrap the molten metal around the seam between two legs, held in place by a pair of curious volunteers brave enough to step close to the heat. Quite the crowd has amassed. They ask questions and give suggestions and tell her their opinions on the guardians, the sailors, and Reede's wheat field. When she's wrapped the seam in metal, they lift the whole length of pipe and lower it into a tub of water, provided by Reede's wife, Clavia, who watches in fascination as the new joint hisses and steam clouds the air. It’s a messy seam, but it will hold. By the time the sun has set and she's too tired to work, she has one long length of pipe that requires several people to move. They walk together with the bendable pipes draping between them. The villagers have lit the area around the forge with torches and light the entire way back to Reede's farm, where she lays out the pipe from the pond to the field and is delighted to see that it's long enough. Everyone wants to know about next steps, and Zelda explains the pump until their eyes glaze over and Clavia offers her some of the soup she made for dinner.

Purah is rightfully annoyed when Zelda returns, and is even more annoyed that Zelda will likely be gone again tomorrow, and then _even more_ annoyed that Zelda smells rather ripe. When she finally gets a chance to clean up, she finds that her face is streaked with soot and she has singed some of her hair. She passes out in exhaustion, so tired that she falls asleep before she can finish a faint, slurred prayer for Link's safety.

Probably a dozen people stop by to help her the next day. There are gears to install and a piston to construct, but once she describes the piston, Nack takes over the production. Ralera and Nikki get to work cleaning out any residual data ink residue from the pipes. It all comes together rather quickly, and by dinner, they're connecting one end of the pipe to the pump, and they’re lowering the far end of the pipe into the pond, and Medda is throwing his weight against the crank, and water is coming out. A cheer rises as the first water gushed out.

The whole town celebrates. They're planning which field to do next. They should secure the pipe to the ground. Maybe with some kind of croquet hoops. They could bury it in the ground so no one trips on it. They should stop Medda and his over-enthusiastic pumping, and they should put a tub under the end of the pipe to catch all the water he's pumping out. No, not a tub. They should build a pool!

"Congratulations."

She turns to Reede as he comes up beside her. 

"You’ve saved me a fifty-foot walk to the pond."

He's being sarcastic, but Zelda thinks on it a second and pulls out her journal, begining to sketch. "I saved you several fifty feet walks up a hill and several fifty feet walks down the hill carrying buckets of water. What do you think of this? We could put a device here that sprays water over the field. Or we could run more pipe through the field but drill holes, so it sprays up into the air. We would have to re-pressurize it...Maybe a valve. And a triggering mechanism.”

Reede squints in the waning light and leans in to look more closely. "You think you could do that?"

"I would have to experiment a bit. It probably wouldn't be perfect on the first try. But if other people are already interested, we could make your farm a test case."

"I think you've already done that."

She bites her lip, then turns to him. “Are you that upset?”

He sighs and looks downhill at the townspeople who have cracked open a barrel of beer. He lifts his hat an inch off his head and drags a hand through his hair before replacing it. She’s reminded that he does have very kind eyes.

“No,” he says. “It’s just that you’re a kid, even if you pretend you aren’t. You’re a kid not too much older than my kids. And you’re enthusiastic and bright-eyed. You’re trying to change things that haven’t budged for a hundred years. Trying to change things that are the way they are for a reason. But those reasons leave a toll on you, and if you understood them, you’d lose that sparkle, that enthusiasm. You want to change things that I don’t think can be changed, and I’m worried you’re going to burn yourself out trying and you’re going to get a bunch of people’s hopes up along the way.”

She does understand. She knows that Hateno survived by hunkering down, by shutting themselves off. It’s what kept them safe against the forces of the Calamity. But she also knows that Reede can never understand that her drive doesn’t come from naiveté, but from the fact that she’s seen what the world could be like. And she’s the one who broke it. She has to be the one to rebuild. 

“And what is the reason that you want to walk up the hill to the pond and back every day carrying heavy buckets of water?”

He snorts, and when she looks up at him, he has a rueful smile. “You’re a menace.”

She turns back to the party with a smug smile on her face. “I think the phrase you’re looking for is thank you.”

He elbows her lightly in the arm and walks off to join the festivities.


	8. Before the 2nd Meeting

The celebration is not nearly distracting enough, and within an hour she's slipping away from the impromptu celebration, leaning against the back of Reese’s house to check her map. Four days is too long for Link to not use the teleportation medallion. In the dark, the blue circle on the Lurelin beach shines all the brighter, all the more damning. She presses her hand to her stomach to hold back her nausea. 

Something is wrong.

All the horrors that could have befallen him flash too quickly for her to stomp down, too quickly to even parse, so she’s just visualizing him dead, dead, dead in different positions and with different lighting. He's dead, and she’s not even there to hold his body. Her arms shake with the swell of magic that burns under her ribs.

The loud crack of a firework startles her so badly that she screams, but the scream is swallowed by the delighted shrieks from further down the hill. 

Her vision is spotty and her head is light, but she's seeing the view in front of her again. She's able to rationalize. She should give him another day. Their usual agreement is five days before she goes to get the Sheikah to help her find him. Maybe he decided to take the troop up and around the falls. Maybe he thought the climb would be good for them, and they haven’t had a suitable place to camp. Maybe there’s a massive moblin camp that has taken over the stable, and he and his team are laying siege to it, and it's unsafe for her to join him. Maybe he’s making them all sleep out in the rain and they haven't made camp for four days. Maybe they made it an hour out of Lurelin before he had them turn around and head back and he’s waiting for her in Lurelin, right where the warp point says he is.

She should give him one more day before she panics.

Right. Yes. She is therefore not going to panic.

She’s also not going to give him another day.

She circles the party in the shadows, and no one is the wiser when she makes it to town, then to her empty house. She dresses in her charcoal gray tunic, and raids Link's stock of arrows, buckling on her quiver and her favorite bow and a strapping a spear across her back for good measure. There's a couple of fairy tonics and a jar full of lynel parts on a shelf. Link might be saving them for something, but if he is, he's out of luck. She sets her shoulders and takes off into the night, crossing the village and heading to the lake, where Kilton's balloon glows purple and red in the night.

It's eerie to approach the balloon. There's a string of thin music in the air and an overly sweet scent of what she hopes is incense. Kilton startles and spins as she walks up. He leans far over the counter, into her space and sniffs her in loud, long drafts. She's anxious enough that he's lucky she doesn't stab him. "Oooooh! What have you got there?"

She sets the jar on the counter between them. He blinks at her unevenly and drums the claws on his gloved hand so they make a clicking sound. At the sight of the monstrous organs, his tongue lolls from his mouth and drags over his lower lip. It's difficult to stay brave. It's difficult going through with this, knowing how smug Link would be about it. But she ticks up her chin and says, "I want to purchase a lizalfo mask."

A few minutes later, Kilton has taken the jar, and Zelda has a weighty headpiece in the vague shape of a lizalfo head. As soon as she's far enough from the Fang and Bone to not be offensive, she lowers her nose to her new purchase and takes a sniff. The dense stuffing smells musty and a bit like curry. The stitching on the seams is uneven and messy, and there are patches of mismatched fabric in inexplicable places. She will not let it upset her.

She shifts the headpiece under one arm and warps to Lakeside Stable, half expecting it to not be there, for it to be ash and ruin. But she finds it unchanged. There's a stillness to the stable even though it's lit up in the night and the jungle around it never sleeps.

She walks only a dozen steps in the oppressive humidity before she has to peel her hair from the back of her neck.

There is no sign of the troop in the area around the stable. She leans out at the end of the bridge and looks down across the river where there was once a moblin camp. It's still standing, but empty, quiet as the stable.

The only person still awake seems to be the man at the counter. He looks up from his book and hurries out of his chair when she approaches.

"Excuse me, but have you seen a group of Sheikah and Gerudo soldiers?"

The man gives the lizalfo head under her arm a confused look, but doesn't comment. "You bet. They were hard to miss. Stopped here a few days ago. Camped over there."

"Then they left?"

The man nods. "Headed that way." He points down the road into the jungle in the direction of the Spring of Courage.

Zelda frowns. If Link stopped here, why didn't he signal her? She wants to ask if Link was with them. She wants to ask if they maybe arrived late at night and left early the next morning. She wants to ask if the two troops were getting along. She refrains and thanks the man, before heading far enough down the road to be out of sight.

She takes a deep breath (instantly regretting it when the musty smell hits her again), then hefts the hat onto her head. It's front heavy, and pulls her head down and forward, and she has to jerk her neck back, holding her head almost imperiously. When she has it balanced, she latches the strap under her chin.

The next stop is the Spring of Courage. Into a den of lizalfos and moblins, of electric arrows and spiked weapons. But she can do it. It's the Spring of Courage, after all, so she will have courage. It's a spring of the Goddess, and she is blessed with the Goddess' power, that's currently rolling through her veins like the secretions of a hot footed frog. She's not sure ow to wield it, but she has it all the same.

She taps the slate and lands at the entrance to a shrine, tucked away in a cavern where she's never been before. She can see the back of the goddess statue, the sight of which makes all the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. She's relieved that she doesn't have to face the Goddess right away, relieved that her view is strange from under the mask and the careful way she has to hold her head. The headpiece better work, because there's no way she'll be able to fight while wearing it.

She runs the Sheikah sensor for nearby lizalfos, but the slate remains silent. The emptiness pushes at her the same way she was stuck by the abandoned moblin camp. It's eerie. Or maybe it's not that surprising. Link mentioned that they were electric lizalfos. She runs the sensor again for electric lizalfos, and finds...nothing. She runs through all the lizalfos—water, silver, even fire—then she runs if for different kinds of moblins and bokoblins.

There's nothing.

She steps out slowly, her bow at the ready.

As she steps around the Goddess statue and around the spring, she sees nothing but the movement of the leaves outside the bounds of the Zonai temple that stands over her head, over the spring. The wind swells and eases, bringing the smell of sweet rot and bright flowers. Somewhere in the distance, a monkey calls. Somewhere to her left there's the loud chittering of an insect. She stands before the goddess, looking out into the wild, before her shoulders slump in relief and confusion. There are no monsters here. She removes her headpiece, and sucks in a breath of fresh air, tucking the mask under her arm to brush her hair from her face.

Has Link been here and then moved on? Have all the monsters in the area gathered elsewhere, perhaps in a massive standoff with the troop? She needs to search for Link. But first, she braces herself. And turns to face the Goddess.

She's met with the same serene face. The same little smile that mocked her all those years ago. The same eyes that stayed closed to the dire need of her people are still closed today. Zelda closes her fist against her chest. She doesn't know what to say. The same bitterness from the last time she stood here rises up her throat, tightens her shoulders. And yet, the Goddess did come through in the end. She was able to hold back the Calamity, eventually able to seal it away. She did finally awaken the power of the Goddess within herself, a power that churns uncomfortably through her gut at this very moment, ready to spill out even now. And for that she's grateful.

And yet it was too late. Too late to save her friends and her father and so many of the people she was duty bound to protect.

But was the Goddess too late, or did that failure sit entirely on Zelda's shoulders?

If Link was right, it was love that unlocked the power of the Goddess, so it was Zelda's fault that she didn't open her heart earlier. Or was it her father's fault for pushing her in the wrong direction? The Goddess could have spoken to her one of the thousands of times that Zelda begged for direction, could have whispered to her that love was the answer. 

But if love was all the Goddess had ever asked of her, how can she now face the statue with anything less than warmth and compassion and love? It's as if she's learned nothing.

How can she feel both thankful and rejected? Both relieved and heartbroken? How can she wrestle with the guilt that she carries while she gives her thanks to the Goddess?

"General!"

She spins, sucking in a breath, dropping her mask, and drawing her bow.

She spins in time to see Link turning away from her, sheathing his sword that he must have had planted tip first into the ground.

Link? How long had he been there? Had he been watching her? And he didn't say anything?

A Sheikah rushes into the temple, but freezes at the sight of her. "Your—" At the lowest point of his bow, he remembers that he's not supposed to call her that. Or bow. He straightens in a hurry, his eyes darting to Link, who jerks his head for the Sheikah to continue. "General, green team has returned from Corta Lake. They defeated the wizrobe and brought back some hardy durians."

Link gives a curt nod, and the Sheikah takes that as a dismissal, half bowing again to Zelda before remembering again and hurrying away.

Link stays turned away from her, and Zelda has an uncomfortable moment to get a look at him.

He's...taller. Or perhaps he's just standing straight in a way he usually doesn't. Not that he slouches, but there's usually a comfortable ease to his stance that's missing completely now.

"Link?"

He turns to her, his face shuttered. His coldness takes her aback.

"I..." All the questions she has die in her mouth. "I didn't hear you."

"If I'd been a lizalfo, I would have killed you."

She tries a smile. "A good thing I thoroughly checked that that there were no lizalfos in the area."

"Did you check well enough to know there's a military camp right outside?"

Her brows furrow. "You set up camp?"

"I told you it was dangerous, and you came by yourself, and you stood here with your back turned to the entrance."

"How long ago did you get here?"

"I told you not to come here."

She plants her hands on her hips. "You were supposed to use the teleportation medallion. I thought you'd been hurt. Or kidnapped. Or killed!"

"Everything's fine."

"Then why didn't you signal me? Did you lose the medallion?"

"I didn't lose it."

"Then what happened?"

"I'm—" For the first time, his stony mask cracks. Just the smallest bit. A twitch of his eyebrows, a twist at the corner of his lip. "I'm not ready for you to be here."

“What does _that_ mean?!” He doesn't want her around?! If he thinks she's going to mess up his military activities, he could just say so.

He cringes and suddenly looks more like himself.

“General!”

His face shifts into alarm, and he snaps to look over his shoulder. He takes a hurried step towards her, reaching for her, and she takes an instinctive step back.

He freezes. His face is shocked in a way that makes something tug at her chest to go to him.

But Link’s shoulders pull straight again, his chin lifting and his eyes turning stony as he turns to face the Gerudo rushing into the temple.

“General?” She gives Zelda a confused look, but when no explanation is forthcoming, she continues with her report. “Purple and crimson teams are ready to leave.”

He gives a sharp nod, which seems to be all she’s expecting, because she nods back and leaves.

He doesn’t meet Zelda’s eyes when he turns back to her. His jaw is still set. “We need to talk somewhere else.” He stalks up to her, and his movements are so intense, so purposeful that she has to hold herself back from pulling away again and demanding an explanation. Right here. Right now. He reaches for the slate at her hip, and she swats his hand away, which makes him still. He snaps his eyes to her face, and swallows hard. And she's not going to let him get away with looking all sad for getting what he deserves. She glares up at him and holds out the slate. When he moves to wrap a tentative arm around her waist, she shifts away, her glare increasing. There’s a look in his eyes, something warring with himself, and if it turns out he's attracted to her shoving him away, she's going to be excessively irritated. She grabs his free wrist to plants his hand on her belt and takes hold of the front of his baldric. Without dropping eye contact, he taps a shrine on the map and warps them away.

They land at a shrine on a cliff high over the ocean, where it is pouring down rain. She shrieks, and Link grabs her arm and tugs her into the shrine’s entrance. Once under shelter, he reaches for her like he wants to brush her damp hair from her face, but he pulls his hand back at the last second and lets her do it herself. He's drenched and pathetic looking. Good. She glares at him some more and wrings the water from her hair.

They just stare at each other for a long moment, and it's only when she lifts an eyebrow in encouragement that he takes a deep breath.

"I had a memory."

Her angry movements slow.

"Sela said something and it set it off, because...well, she's not the first person to call me an unfit little shit. Last time it was this guy in the royal guard, and... _bam_! I'm in a memory. And...they're all talking about me behind my back and laughing, and..."

He drags a hand through his hair. He’s lit only by the dull blue light of the shrine and the occasional flash of lightning in the distance. His eyes look wild. He’s shifting on his feet because the shrine is too small for him to pace.

She tries a coaxing, "And what?"

"And I kicked his butt. I didn't say a word after. I just had this...this _weight_ that settled on me. And—I don't know—it was like that's what worked. That's what got everyone to accept me. That’s what I had to be, had to do. So when I came out of the memory, that's what I did. I kicked Sela's butt and then acted—"

"Appallingly?"

"Well, I was going to say acted like an aloof asshole, but yeah."

She crosses her arms over her chest. "And has this worked for you."

He throws out his arms in a desperate shrug. "All of a sudden, they're listening to me, which is weird because I'm not saying anything. And now they're trying to get me to say something approving. They're trying to impress me. And now when I do say something, I can make it really devastating and then they want to do better and impress me."

"So being withholding is working for you."

"Exactly."

"Well. Congratulations."

"And so I didn't want you around."

"Because you're being withholding."

"Yes."

Zelda pulls out the slate, ready to warp away and leave him here in the middle of nowhere in the rain.

"Wait!” He grabs for her slate and lowers it in her hands. “Oh, oh nonononono. That's not what I meant."

She gives him her most withering look.

"No, I—I didn't want you to see me like that. It’s—you saw—it’s hard for me to pull myself out of it.”

She recrosses her arms, effectively dropping his hand from the slate.

"You wanted me to do this and do a good job, and this is the only thing I could think of that could make that happen. I had to tap into the way I was Before. And...I know you liked the way I was Before, and if you saw me that way, you'd want me to do it more, and—Zel, I _can't_! I want to make you happy, but I just—"

"I _beg_ your pardon?"

"You—"

"I thought you were _dead_! I was ready to burn the entire forest to the ground to find you and fight all the monsters in my way myself, and you _still_ think _I don't like you_?!" She's in his face now. Shoving his chest. "I can't _believe_ you! I can't believe you think I would—I would—what? That I'm _settling_ for you? That I'm secretly pining for someone from a hundred years ago? That I let you—that I would—You think I'd kiss someone I don't—Errg! I _love you_ , you—you aloof asshole!"

He lets her shove him, and some of the fight drains out of her. 

Her eyes are welling and she looks up at the ceiling, because she is not going to cry. "Why can't you believe me when I tell you that? What can I do to convince you?"

"No. Zel, no." He reaches for her again, but again stops himself. "You're perfect. This is all me, and I know it. It's—I'm just...I keep thinking that you're expecting something else, that I'm not good enough. I'm going to let you down and you're going to leave me, or you're going to see what I have to do to not let you down and you'll remember what I used to be like and that you actually don't like me, and I'll lose you that way. I believe you, I do, but my brain—oh Goddess, I made you cry! I'm making it worse! What—what can I do?"

She holds out her arms, and he's there instantly, holding her close, his arms tight around her. She presses her forehead and nose to the side of his face. 

"I'm not crying," she sniffs. 

"I know.

"I'm so mad at you."

"...I know. I messed up."

"You think I'll _break up with you_. That's the stupidest thing."

"I don't know what I'd do if you broke up with me."

"You saved me and all Hyrule and you think you're not good enough. You've put up with me for months. You've been my rock and my best friend. I'm not going to leave you. Quit being such a fool."

He relaxes ever so slightly under her arms. "I can't promise that."

"Obviously!"

He pulls her closer. "Goddess, I love you, Zelda."

She squeezes her arms tighter around his neck. "I don't like it when you're an asshole. I don't like it when you avoid me."

"That's...more reassuring than it should be."

"You keep your work face at work. I don't like it."

"This is why I didn't want you to see me work."

He might have a point there. But he could have explained said point with words. This is simply unacceptable.

She can feel his face twitch against her nose as he tries not to smile. "You got a lizafo mask."

"Not now. I'm mad at you."

"Okay," he says. "Okay."


	9. The Second Meeting

Zelda turns it into a game: who can be the most detached in front of the troop. She stops by camp every evening, requesting an update under the guise of reporting back to the rebuilding committee. She attempts to be so detached that Link feels less awkward for also behaving strangely. She attempts to be so detached that she cracks Link's mask and makes him laugh. So far, she has not succeeded, but she's sure she has come close several times. He, on the other hand, has made her snort twice.

She warps to Martha's Landing where Link has thankfully set up a warp point. The troop has finished clearing the jungle of monsters, and has headed south, back to the coast. They're in groups on the beach, one of which is working on stealth with a few of the Sheikah guiding them through proper footwork so they are silent in the sand. The Gerudo hate it. Sneaking up on an enemy and killing them without looking them in the eyes, without them knowing, is dishonorable. "Gut'va vut." It doesn't count. Link, however, thinks it ruins all the Sheikah's hard work if the Gerudo crash up to an enemy shouting.

In another ring marked by rocks, the Sheikah are learning to use a shield the way the Gerudo do. The Sheikah hate it. Hand-to-hand combat that lasts long enough to need a shield means that you were not stealthy or quick enough. It should not be encouraged. Link, however, thinks it would do them good to learn their partner's moves. Even if they don't end up using the shield in battle, they'll at least know what their partner is up to. What their partner is thinking.

As Zelda walks up, one of the Sheikah throws his shield to the sand with a snarl. "This is absurd. Fighting with brute strength. If they want to do it, let them. I will not abandon our ways."

Link doesn't even blink. His back is straight, his face blank. There's a broadness to his shoulders, a stretch to his arms as they're crossed over his chest. He's completely impassive as the Sheikah continues to rant. 

Link used to stand the exact same way as she raged at him every afternoon in front of the Goddess statue at the castle. 

He wasn't as handsome then. 

Something twists under her ribs.

The Sheikah says, "You've already robbed us of our purpose. Now you're trying to rob us of our traditions."

Link moves. It's not nearly as fast as she's seen him move beofre, slow enough that the Sheikah has time to hastily draw his sword. Link's slow enough, but he's relentless, driving the Sheikah back and back and back across the sand, until his heel comes up against the rocks marking the edge of the sparring circle, at which point he drops into a roll and slips away, finally finding his feet enough for his movements to turn liquid. The Sheikah method of fighting is to dodge and dart, to avoid until you can make a killing strike and then to end it as quickly as possible. But Link only leaves deliberate openings, openings he blocks repeatedly with his shield, throwing the Sheikah back a step with every resonant clang. Link is slow enough to drag the fight out and is fast enough to avoid any of the Sheikah's attempts to bring it to an end. The Sheikah tires quickly, and on one, hard smash of Link's shield, he stumbles enough that Link twists behind him, and drops him to the ground. He has the Sheikah pinned down, a knee on his spine and his arm twisted tight behind his back. The Sheikah turns his head and spits sand.

Link looks up at the rest of them with a hard look in his eyes. Zelda interprets it as a challenge. _Who's next_? But the few Gerudo in the group consider him. 

"If we keep the Sheikah fighting, they wear out," one says.

Link lifts an eyebrow.

Another Gerudo shakes her head. "But his moves are faster than ours."

One of the Sheikah mutters, "You'll have to learn to move faster then."

Link lowers his head and murmurs something into the ear of the man below him. Link rises and turns to Zelda as if he's known she was there all along. Which of course he has.

She keeps her face passive as he leaves the sparing circle without a backwards glance. In her most pompous, clipped tone, she demands, "Report," as if she didn't see any of what just happened.

In his most detached voice, he reports, "Camp is secure. Yellow and gray teams left for Akkala this morning to escort the Bolson Construction company to Eldin. Black and peach teams headed east along the coast to clear the monsters between here and Aris Beach. I expect them back late tomorrow. On the way here, navy team dispatched a Hinox at Herin Lake."

She nods. "Do you have adequate supplies? The Rito representative has graciously offered to provide for your troops. They have offered a full cart of butter."

"Unnecessary."

"They believe it will store well in the warm climate."

"No. Thank you."

She hums slightly and lets her eyes slide away from him in disinterest. "Very well. Escort me back to the warp point."

This is completely unnecessary. But he gives her a curt nod and follows her back up the trail, away from the beach. It takes a few moments even after they're out of sight for his posture to sags. She slips her hand into his.

"Butter," he says.

She laughs. "I saw how your lip twitched! I got you."

"The Rito didn't offer anything, did they?"

"Not a thing. Are you alright that you didn't get to kill the hinox yourself?"

He groans. He's still holding onto the dim hope that he can get a metal from Kilton for killing every hinox across Hyrule. "I’ve gotten that one before, so I think it will still count. It's only a matter of time though before they try to take one out that I haven't killed yet."

"You can simply tell them that you're going to do it."

"Or I can sneak off in the night."

"I suppose that's one solution."

"I already gave up the medal for killing the moldugas, letting the contestants kill them all during the Gerudo trials. This one's mine." He swings their joined hands.

He digs into his pocket and pulls out a folded sheet of paper with a list on it. Since he's barely speaking at all until she arrives, he saves up all the ridiculous things he wants to say over the course of the day, writing them down so he can reel them off to her one after another. She wouldn't call Link "chatty" by any stretch of the imagination, but when he strings everything he wishes to say together, it's a lot.

He asks, "Do you think moblins do anything to the meat they cook besides roast it? Do you think they have spices or marinades or something? It doesn't taste like they do, but maybe they're bad at it."

"I suppose we could watch them prepare a meal. You could send one of your teams to survey them and call it a scouting mission."

His eyes light. He looks back at his list for his next talking point. "I'm going to call blue team 'boo team' from now on. Because they’re still terrible. Just in my head though."

"That seems reasonable."

"When we get back to Hateno, I'm going to figure out how to use a boomerang. I’ve picked up a couple now, and I think I can get it with practice, but I don't want to practice here with everybody watching."

"I'm sure you'll pick it up quickly. What did that Sheikah mean when he said you'd robbed him of his purpose?"

He runs a hand through his hair. "They're Sheikah. They're all sworn to protect the royal family, and with you not being queen, some of them are kind of grumpy."

"We knew they would be. What does that have to do with you?"

He gives her a rueful smile. "They say I had an inappropriate influence on that decision."

She scoffs. It's true he brought it to her attention that the monarchy wouldn't be a good idea, but the decision itself was hers.

"That's just some of them though," he says. "The rest are...very nice to me."

"Why does that sound ominous?"

He rubs the back of his neck. "They're convinced they can change your mind. And even if they can't convince you, if they just wait long enough...maybe they can convince Zelda Jr. some day."

"Who?"

His ears turn red.

She rolls her eyes. What nonsense. "I suppose the Sheikah have proved themselves adept at waiting. What else is on your list?"

He latches onto her change of subject and checks his paper. "Do you think you could make me a cloak that's made out of the same stuff as the rubber armor? It rains so much in Faron. It was miserable." Something new suddenly occurs to him. "Is there a Sheikah tech thing that stops it from raining?"

She laughs. "Not that I know of. And if I ever figure out how to recreate the rubber armor, I will make a dozen things from it. You won't be left out." 

They've reached the warp point now. It's tucked away off the path behind some trees, glowing in the fading light.

"What else?" she asks.

"I want to lick your ear."

That startles a laugh from her. "I doubt that's on your list."

He lifts his eyebrows and holds the paper out so she can see that it is, indeed, his last bullet point. She laughs again, but then they lock eyes and it's much less funny. He steps toward her until her back presses against the cliff wall, and he sets to work on her ear, teasing her until she's a writhing mess, her breath jagged, and her nails digging into his back. 

This is how most of their brief meetings go. She can't help but suspect that he's working very hard to please her, tying her sexual satisfaction to him telling her a bad pun he thought of six hours ago, thus ruining her for all other men. Or something. She's probably thinking about it too hard.

#

She spends most of the rest of her time in Eldin, working on her presentation to the committee and overseeing the final layer of road. The road itself is gray, reminding her of the cobblestones in old Castle Town. At the halfway point, there's a mural: a pheonix, wings spread wide, claws clasping a triforce, all done in stones of red and white and luminous stone. To install it, the Gorons have a thin, metal mesh laid down over the road, and barrels holding shards of colored rock, and a grinder and a huge scratchy poof that they use to buff the stones. They spread thick tar over a small section of mesh, and then all the Gorons crowd around and put down the mosaic as quickly as possible while one Goron stirs the tar, keeping it from hardening. Then they do the next section and the next, checking the diagram only every so often. It's more that the plans are an idea of what they're going to accomplish rather than detailed instructions. They don't have time to be precise when the tar dries so quickly.

It's fascinating yet makes her extremely anxious. She volunteers to stir the tar, but they laugh at her and her Hylian biceps.

Vah Rudania looms overhead, her body blocking the sun, her steps making the ground tremble. By now, they're all so used to it that they no longer look up at the sudden shadows thrown over their work. She stands near as the Divine Beast carefully lowers one foot at a time, and steam billows up in a great, thick sheet. It reminds her a bit of ironing clothes, something she hasn't seen done in a century. The team working on the road knows how far away to stand. They know to brace their feet. When Rudania's foot raises, they let the road cool slightly, then inspect it, going in with great, heated rollers that they push in front of them to smooth down the ridges between footprints. They use levels as tall as she is to check the grade, to check that the road isn't slanting to one side.

Each morning, she greets the sun with Yunobo and the Blood Brothers, all of them breathing deeply and reaching their arms to the sky before diving down to touch their toes. It’s not difficult for a Goron to touch his toes. She and Yunobo discuss breathing techniques he can use for better control of the Divine Beast, but he's doing so well that they're not that necessary. The real trouble is how nervous he is to show off Vah Rudania to the committee. The breathing exercises might come in handy then.

She checks in at Terry Town to see if yellow and gray teams have made it yet and to go over the latest plans for the new meeting house with Bolson. Now that they both know the construction company is capable of the demands placed on them, the arrangements are all less dramatic. Not that there's no drama (it's still Bolson, after all), but less drama. The drama really comes when yellow and gray teams arrive and Bolson is incensed that they are not dressed completely in their assigned color. He will not stop talking about it, and they're be lucky the Gerudo from the yellow team doesn't kill him on their journey to Eldin.

Rudania lifts her foot from the last stretch of road.

Bolson construction finishes the meeting house and walls off another pool for the Zora. 

Zelda has diagrams drawn up, ready to present, along with the single prototype flower and estimates on costs. She hand writes ten copies of each essential page for the committee members' reference, and wonders whatever happened to the printing press they used to have in Kakariko.

To demonstrate the smoothness of the road, the Gorons put several glasses of water in a wagon, which a donkey pulls from one end of the road to the other. When they’re done, not only have none of the glasses fallen, but none of the water has spilled.

The troop finishes their march down the coast and turns north to finally make camp at the Highland Stable. Once there, Link cuts them loose for a week, and Zelda arrives to collect him for the meeting.

Instead of heading straight to Eldin, they warp back to Hateno, where Link sleeps for ten hours, cooks an elaborate meal, and listens patiently as she practices her presentation to the committee twice in full. At the end of her final run through, she tries to rein in her anxiety as she asks, "Well? How was that? Better than last time?"

Link leans forward in his chair to rest his elbows on his knees and takes far too long to answer. "Zelda...All due respect...But you are way over doing it."

She looks over the diagrams spread over the table, looking for what he might be talking about. "Overdoing what? What do you think should be scaled back? I suppose we could cut a straight road from Fort Hateno to the mountain, but I do think it's worth maintaining the curves of the road that are already there. I know the mosaics are unnecessary, but they could do a great deal for morale. And I know the fireproof elixir is costly, and the chill shrooms will take time to farm, but I think the cost is within a reasonable budget and the timeline is acceptable."

He shakes his head. "No. Everything you've done is great. I've got no suggestions. But that's the thing: do you remember Rhondson's presentation that started all this? She threw that together in a couple hours."

"Well, yes," Zelda says. "It didn't take much preparation for us to agree to the shape of a plan. But this presentation is about specifics. They need to be accurate. It needs to be perfect so Reede can't poke holes in it. I need to show the Gorons that I appreciate their work. And I need to show Sidon that I haven't wasted his time and made him travel to Eldin for no reason."

He takes her hands. "You're going to do great. People are going to love it. They'll approve it unconditionally."

She pulls her hands free and rearranges her notes. "Okay." She brushes back her hair. "Okay, what if I practice one more time and go for a more lighthearted tone?"

"No."

"But—"

He stands. "I'm going to go practice throwing my boomerang."

"Link!"

He pauses. "Unless you want to make out instead?"

She opens her mouth, then closes it again. She frowns down at her papers, unsure exactly how to prioritize the time they have left until this evening when they'll head back to Eldin. Maybe they could kiss for a little bit, and then she can try her presentation again? Would it be more productive to do it the other way around? Then she won't have to cut their kissing time short. Or maybe she'll do a better job on her presentation if she's relaxed.

Link snorts and smacks a kiss to her forehead. "I'll be out front."

"Wait. I—"

"Be back soon!"

#

Vah Medoh arrives, perching on the ridge to the east. And Zelda convinces Reede to let her warp the Hateno delegation to Eldin solely because Reede's last crop of the year comes in, and spending almost a week traveling would take him away from that. He's exceptionally wary of warping, but it's that or miss the meeting, because he's certainly not going to miss his harvest. Reede doesn't like going to the meetings, but he'll be damned if he lets the committee make any decisions without him.

When the meeting begins, the Gorons announce that they're going to give their demonstration of the road, and then proceed to replace the glasses of water with pitchers of Goron fire whiskey. That was not part of the plan, and Zelda protests as her anxiety sky rockets, but Rohan just laughs at her and nudges the donkey into moving. At the end of the demonstration, not a drop has been spilled, and everyone is both impressed and ready to drink. Rohan gives her a wink and a thumbs up. After everyone has a glass, Link is proved absolutely right: the proposal she's worked so hard on is unanimously accepted with barely any discussion at all. She suspects they're not really listening. After she's identified every possible critique, she doesn't get to use any of her carefully constructed counterarguments. After so much drama surrounding the road, they're just going to build it now. It's anticlimactic.

She calls for a short recess for everyone to go get some water (although she says it's to give her time to clean up). Link leans into her as she's packing away her prototype flower. "You're disappointed."

"No. It's fine."

He grins and nudges her with his elbow.

When the committee reconvenes, Teba stands from his seat to get everyone’s attention. In a rehearsed tone, he says, "The Rito delegation moves to repair the Tabantha Great Bridge." 

He passes around a stack of proposals, handwritten just as Zelda's were. The front page is a beautifully drawn image of the bridge stretching across the canyon. Zelda scoots forward in her chair. She's been wanting to repair the bridge for months and had no idea that Teba was working on this.

Teba says, "As you can see, the Rito artisans have done extensive research this month into the bridge's original design and have recreated it with select improvements. Repairs to the bridge would allow for tourism and further trade into Tabantha, specifically Rito Village. Although the Rito can fly, and Vah Medoh has reopened our trade channels, the bridge is the only way into Tabantha on foot unless visitors circle far to the north and travel through the Tabantha Snowfield. 

"We would like to repair the bridge, yet we are severely lacking in resources. We lack iron for the anchors and brackets. Our region has vast supplies of wood, but we don't have the manpower to log all that we need or to transport it to the bridge. Furthermore, we believe it will take a team of at least ten to do the construction safely. In addition to paying them for their labor, we will need to feed and lodge them. We will also need to construct a crane, the designs for which you can see on page seven. We believe that construction will take about four months. You can see our estimated budget on page ten."

Deltan turns the page and whistles.

Sidon says, "That is a steep price for a project that will disproportionately help the Rito. Wouldn't it be better if this committee focused on projects that aided more than a single group?" He doesn't sound as if he's trying to be rude, simply pointing out an impracticality as if everyone will realize the folly of this plan, have a good laugh, and move on.

Teba's eye twitches, but he keeps his voice steady as he says, "We hope trade with greater Hyrule will aid everyone."

"But you already have trade with greater Hyrule through Vah Medoh," Mubs says.

"We can send supplies in and out, yes. But it's difficult for anyone to visit our city. I understand that the price is high, but it is a very large bridge. The Rito offer to fund a third of the project ourselves."

Zelda's excitement wavers. The only way the Rito can afford to do that is if they're counting on increased income from trade once the bridge is fixed. She does the calculations in her head of how much capital she might have to contribute up front. She's already agreed to pay for most of a road today.

"Have you spoken to the Bolson Construction Company about this?" she asks.

"I have. We used their estimates on labor costs and supplies. But," Teba huffs a sigh, "we would need a larger force than just the Bolson Construction Company, and when we suggested recruiting labor from the Hylian Villages, he said in no uncertain terms that he will not work with anyone whose name does not end in _son_."

Rhondson groans loudly and mutters under her breath that Bolson's going to miss out on all the big projects.

"Can...people just lie about their names at this point?" Link asks.

"Probably," Rhondson says.

"Problem solved then."

Zelda says, "That sounds as if the project will have economic benefits for those recruited to work on the bridge. That could help Lurelin, Hateno, and Tarrey Town, as well as any other areas who are interested."

"If the rupees are just going to come back to us, then it doesn't make sense for us to put up the money to fix the bridge," Reede says.

Deltan says, "Rito Village is the very next stop from Gerudo Town on Medoh's trade route, so we can trade easily with you. And it's not that far for a Rito to fly if you want to trade with us. Doesn't sound like this would help us at all."

Teba is quickly growing frustrated. "We unanimously approved the road from Fort Hateno, even though that helps only a single region—a region who has showed little commitment to our rebuilding endeavors."

Reede doesn’t seem to care at all that he was called out on this, but several of the other representatives do. "Hateno has no other means of trade." "That road is just a first step before extending it north and west." "Why not improve the road through the snowfield instead?"

Cado stands, drawing everyone's attention. "If I may, the Sheikah have a motion that may improve the quality of life for all regions."

Zelda has no idea where he's going with this, and honestly the meeting is spiraling too far out of her control.

Cado passes around thick proposals, and—oh. The Sheikah's printing press is still functional after all. His proposals look much more formal than Teba's or her own.

"The Sheikah move to rebuild Castle Town."

Zelda is professional in how well she holds back an eye roll. "We are discussing the Rito Representative's proposal at the moment. We can discuss this after further discussion of the Tabantha Great Bridge and a vote."

Cado bows his head. "I understand and mean no disrespect. However, if we are low on funds for the Rito’s project, perhaps this project would be better suited for the present moment. A trade station in central Hyrule will improve the economic status of every region. After its completion, we may be in a better position to be charitable."

"Charitable?!" Teba says.

Cado talks over him. "Furthermore, it is a straight shot from Castle Town to the Tabantha Great Bridge. If trade proves slower from Rito Village than from other areas, we'll be more inclined to repair the bridge."

In what's probably an attempt to be helpful, but actually isn't because they haven't had enough discussion yet, Link raises his hand and says, "I second the bridge idea."

Zelda takes a deep breath, knowing what will happen next, and says, "All those in favor."

She, Teba, and Link raise their hands. Everyone else raises theirs when she asks, "All opposed."

Teba blinks once, then sits. The way his feathers are fluffed shows his irritation. 

Zelda needs a plan to keep him on the committee. Something she can do for the Rito, a way to rework the proposal and present it again next month.

Cado clears his throat. "As you can see, we have detailed plans for all the major infrastructure that we discussed at the last meeting. Meeting house, stable, bazaar. These structures will fit into what remains of the cobblestone roads and building foundations of old Castle Town. We have plans for a permanent bathhouse for the Zora, and we have consulted with their engineers on the design." He bows his head to Sidon, who bows his head back. "We have already spoken to Bolson Construction, and since this project can be split into smaller units of individual buildings, they would not need to recruit more manpower."

Meaning Bolson made deals with both the Sheikah and Teba and didn't bother to mention it to anyone.

"A multicultural settlement in the very heart of Hyrule will be a strong symbol of unity. Rebuilding the capital will show our commitment to rebuilding. It is near to fertile farmland, and to the remains of other settlement s that could be rebuilt just as we plan with Castle Town."

She can't argue with any of this. She _wants_ to, but doing so just because she was attached to the bridge idea would make her beyond petty.

"You can see the budget on the next page. Since this will benefit all of us, we can split the costs nine ways. With that in mind, the figures seem reasonable. Our estimates show recouping losses in less than three months."

Link shakes his head. "We've barely started to clear Central Hyrule of monsters. And you're setting up right next to the castle. There's still a lynel in there."

Cado counters, "But your troop is at Highland Stable now, aren't they? That seems the prefect launch point into Central Hyrule. The troop can end by clearing the castle. At that point, it would be a simple matter for the Hateno tech lab to salvage the deactivated guardians."

Zelda narrows her eyes. That sounds a bit too pointedly aimed at winning her over.

"This sounds excellent!" Sidon says. "The Zora second the motion."

Link quietly reaches over and flips the pages in the proposal before her, bringing her to the future map of Castle Town.

She ignores him as she says, "All those in favor."

Link taps a finger against a building labeled in Sheikah script.

Everyone raises their hand. Except her. Because her eyes have caught on the label.

The script translates to _Her Majesty's Town Home_.


	10. Before the third meeting

"The windmills in Tanagar Canyon are still functional, and yet woefully underused," Zelda says. "The benefit of windmills is that they convert wind power into rotational energy, which can be used to grind grain or—or coffee beans or materials for dyes. Perhaps even rock! I can also image the windmills powering a saw mill. But for some reason, all the machines that actually use the wind power have been removed from the bases of the windmills. They have so much underutilized potential!"

Teba says nothing, but he holds his beak in a way that reminds her of a twisted lip. 

They're walking down the great staircase Rito Village after she's spent the morning with Nekk and Cecilia working on the ropes that will become Vah Rudania's harness. She knew the Rito wouldn't have the lengths she needed, but they also weren't sure how to create the widths she required. Given how often NEkk checks his notes, Zelda suspects that they had to reinvent the process for her. The strands of hemp hang down from the highest level of the spiraling town, and Zelda, Celcilia and Nekk switch between three or four strands each, weaving around each other to form the braid. Every so often, one of the Rito claws their way up the rope, pushing the loose braid as high as it will go, yanking it tight, condensing it down. Then they start again.

Despite her gloves, Zelda's hands are chapped blistered. But she feels useful. And she has more important things to worry about. Such as brainstorming how to make Rito Village more appealing so there's a greater demand to fix the bridge.

"It's true that if we were to set up the machines at the base of the windmills, we would have to lower the grain or the timber into the canyon, but the windmill could easily power an elevator, so I don't consider that an issue."

Teba sighs.

She says, "You should also consider a tourism campaign. Lake Totori has such beautiful vistas that simply cannot be experienced unless people come to Rito Village to see it. We need more proactive advertising. Perhaps some word of mouth. Or some posters."

Teba interrupts her. "You're coming up with problems so that the bridge can be the solution. We both know that you should be doing it the other way around. In order for the rest of Hyrule to care about our windmill power enough to repair the bridge for better access, we would first have to build the mills and the elevators. Are you suggesting we go to the committee next month with a proposal for a sawmill?"

Zelda's cheeks heat. She lowers her eyes. "No."

"And the fact is that no one wants to visit Rito Village as a tourist. That's why no one comes."

"No one comes because it's dangerous to travel across the bridge! Tourism and trade have picked up everywhere else after the roads were made safe from monsters! Even Lurelin has had a surplus of visitors since the troop cleared Faron."

"Give it another month then. Maybe everyone will find us mysterious and want to visit."

"How can you be this calm?"

He raises his brow at her. "Would you rather I threw a fit and left the committee?"

"Of course not."

"Castle Town is a good idea," he says. "My pride is hurt, but I'm reasonable enough to see that."

She can’t for the life of her imagine Revali saying something like that. The thought embarrasses her so much that she finds herself blushing. Of course she wasn’t talking to Revali. 

She mumbles, "I still think the mill is an idea worth perusing."

He cracks a smile. "And we have plenty of time for all sorts of ideas."

#

They can't begin the road until Vah Rudania is decorated such that she won't scare anyone. Or at least that's the hope. Zelda hires the Gorons to make the metal frames for the flowers and hires a few of the women in Hateno to make the blue slip covers. She hires the Gorons at the Northern Mine to crush enough luminous paint for her. 

Link still has a few days off, and she wraps herself in her fine Rito coat and drags him with her up to Hebra to collect chillshroom spores, which she needs to make the flowers fireproof. The mushroom collecting is fascinating. Chillshrooms are unique in that they do not need warm, damp places to thrive. In fact, they can be found most frequently in places with high, cold winds, so that's what they search for. She would feel bad about bringing Link on such a quest when he could be relaxing back in Hateno, but more than once as she scrapes spores into a bottle, he calls her "adorable" and seems to enjoy the challenge of finding the most inhospitable spot on the side of the mountain. He directs her to a vast cave in Hebra, which is home to both the massive skeleton of an ancient leviathan and a shrine. Inside its ribs, she lays down thick, multchy growing medium and spreads her spores, seeding the beginnings of her chillshroom farm. 

Now she just has to wait for the mycelium to completely colonize the substrate!

"I feel like I'm covered in spores," Link says, itching at his hair. "I'm going to spread them all over Central Hyrule."

She waves off his concerns. "They'd hardly have conducive growing conditions. The chances of them spreading are negligible."

Link scratches harder at his hair.

At the end of the week, he meets back up with the troop at Highland Stable. They spend a few days clearing out Finra Woods, then head north to the Bridge of Hylia, where there isn't much to do, because Link has already cleared away the lizalfos. 

They clear around Scout's Hill and the outpost ruins, where Link finds a journal from a thief named Misko, who long ago stole relics from the castle.

"I remember him," Zelda says when he shows her the journal that evening. "He was successful early on. I suspect that he bragged to other thieves, because after his first success, they came much more frequently for a while." He managed several successful trips into the castle, before one of his trips went bad. Most of his bones are in the second gatehouse.

Link flips through the pages again, then lifts his eyes to grin at her. "All these treasures are mine now."

The first set of the metal flower frames are finished. She loads them onto a mine cart and uses a combination of mine cart tracks and magnesis to transport them to Gut Check Challenge. The first set of fabric covers are also done. They’re faster to complete than the frames. She takes over the meeting house where the committee gathered a few weeks before and turns it into a work room and storage center, tugging the cloth covers over the frames.

The troop sweeps briefly east to Deya Lake and Dueling Peaks. They secure the Gatepost Ruins near the Great Plateau and then the Lake Kolomo Garrison Ruins. There Link finds the first of Misko's stolen relics. As they walk away from the troop's camp that night, he pulls the Mask of Majora out and _puts it on his face_. "Check it out!"

She nearly screams.

"Sweet Goddess! Take that off immediately!"

The mask ticks to an angle in a distressingly creepy way. Its eyes are wide and unblinking, its colors bright even in the twilight. "Why?" he asks.

"Because it's cursed!" She grabs for it, but he dances back, out of reach, then twists away when she grabs for it again. She jumps on him and locks an arm around his neck, half pulling him backwards and half climbing him. "Link! Legend says it corrupts the wearer. It can warp reality!"

"Really?"

"I don't know! But we had it locked away in the castle for a reason." She manages to get her fingertips between the mask and his cheek and pops it off.

He turns his head and blinks at her with his normal looking eyes, and she glares at him from an inch away from over his shoulder. With a snort, he ducks his head forward to boop her nose with his own, then hefts her higher on his back. He already has one arm hooked under her knee. He slips the other under her easily. He carries her piggy-back the rest of the way to the warp point.

The mushrooms have grown into dot-like sprouts. It looks a bit as if the ground has goosebumbs. She glares at them, as if that will get them to grow faster. Part of her wonders if the power of the Goddess could speed up their growth process if only she knew how to wield it.

The Rito have completed the pieces of Vah Rudania's collar. They present her with two great lengths of rope and then sheet after sheet of burlap fitted with rings. The collar will be far too heavy for Zelda to transport if they assemble it in Rito Village, and Vah Medoh isn't due for another week. Technically, she could wait, but she would rather know that they have the sizing correct before they progress too far with the rest of the harness. While Nekk continues with the ropes that will run under the Divine Beast's belly and around her haunches, Cecilia explains how to splice the rope together—something Zelda will have to do alone, or with Yunobo's assistance. The process is extremely complicated and absolutely thrilling. 

She has to transport each rope individually, wrapping it loop after heavy loop around her body before warping.

The troop clears the Exchange Ruins, and Link shows her a hat he's found that is less terrifying than a doomed mask, but still somehow worse. The new hood is bright green and pointy on top. He's slipped his ears into skin-tight, triangular pockets so they stick out from his head. His face is visible, framed in an unflattering oval.

She stares at him.

"I look like a fairy," he says.

"Please don't."

After a great deal of adjusting Vah Rudania's height and deciding it will work better if she partially climbs the nearby mountain to better reach the Divine Beast's throat, they begin attaching the collar to Rudania's neck. The two ropes will thread through the rings on the burlap pieces, providing additional stability to the assembly and providing a place to attach the flowers. Once the ropes dangle over Rudania's neck, Zelda (from the ground) threads the sheets of burlap into place, and then Yunobo (from the back of the beast's neck, hoists them upwards with a much more manageable rope until they're high enough for Zelda to attach another sheet with a series of carabiners and thread the next sheet into place. And then the next and the next. 

By the end of the day, the collar looks like a proper strip of enormous fabric, but it hangs from either side of her neck. Rudania has to hold her position for the night. The Divine Beast stood motionless for months between Link freeing Daruk's spirit and Yunobo claiming the beast as his own, but seeing her so still now feels painful. As if her non-extent muscles are straining.

Yunobo makes a face, and Zelda thanks him profusely for his efforts.

The troops roll across Mount Daphnes and the Giant's Forest in the west. She suspects that Link would ignore the Sage Temple Ruins for the time being. But one of Misko's treasures is down there, so the lizalfos will not be spared. That night, Link shows her a Twilight relic—a helmet that covers one of his eyes and has great stone horns that reach skyward, making him look taller.

"That's sacred to the Twili people of legend. It's said to contain unimaginable powers."

"Cool," Link says. "Do I look scary?"

He kind of does, but she says, "No."

She hurries to finish Rudania's collar the next day. The ends of each rope need to be spliced together to create a pair of loops. Zelda has trouble making the splice on the first rope tight enough. Then she has the same problem on the second collar loop. Then she has trouble when she's lifted up by one of Rudania's feet to see how everything is lying. She definitely did one of the splices incorrectly, because one of the rope loops is too loose. Back on the ground, she tries again.

The troop arrives at Central Tower. Link used to avoid the tower as it wasn't worth sneaking and fighting his way through the mess of guardians at its base. But now the troop makes camp in its shadow, their tents wedged between the still bodies of guardians. On the wide plain of the Passeri Greenbelt, there's now little to see but a scant few moblins on horseback. It seems the closer they get to the castle—the more they intrude into where the real danger once lurked—the less danger they face. 

They secure the Garrison Ruins, where Link picks up purple armor greaves, which he's not that excited about, but Zelda doesn't find too objectionable. They secure the Ranch Ruins, and in the nearby ruins of Mabe Village Link finds a pair of tights to match the fairy hood.

As soon as they're out of sight of the troop, Link shrugs out of all his belts and his Champion's tunic. He kicks off his boots and strips off his pants, his eyes lit brighter than they have been in weeks. His grin flashes a canine.

"Is it necessary to remove your shirt to show the pants?" she asks.

He's turned slightly away from her, hopping on one foot to pull up a pair of tights. "It's not going to work if I still have the Champion's tunic on."

"What does that mean?"

He doesn't answer, pulling on more clothes and a new pair of boots. When he turns to face her, he plants his hands on his hips and beams at her.

The green tights could very well be painted on for how tight they are. The red shorts over them had the potential to provide some modesty, but that potential is wasted as the shorts are also snug. The toes of his boots curl in on themselves in a way she would call whimsical if not for the rest of the outfit.

Link is nearly bouncing with excitement. "How much do you hate it?"

She has no words.

He digs through his supplies, pulling on a brown shirt before searching some more. "I was thinking it might match my green tunic. It came with shorts, but...it's not that the shorts themselves make me look bad, but my knees get all skinned up if I don't wear pants, and _that_ makes me look like a little kid." He pulls a green tunic over his head and smooths down the front, inspecting himself. 

She crosses her arms over her chest. Nothing about this is impressive. "They're not the same shade of green."

He makes a disappointed face. Then he shoves his sleeves up to his elbows and pulls off his ridiculous boots.

The mushrooms have sprouted. She harvests two thirds of them, leaving the rest to mature and provide more spores. She spends the rest of the day in her workshop in Eldin, mixing together the fireproof concoction in a great vat.

Her hands are dyed a light blue from the crushed chillshrooms, and her fingertips are slightly numb from the icy chill that comes from handling them. Or perhaps the chill is from the warp point that lights on the slate's map. 

Just inside Castle Town. By the south gate.

She warps in only an arm's length from a stone wall, and she startles backwards, her back bumping the canvas of a tent. Link's tent. He doesn't usually bother setting it up all the way. The troop has set up a more permanent camp. She swallows down her anxiety.

When she steps out from behind the tent, she realizes that Link set the warp point wedged between the wall and his tent so she wouldn't warp in to the view of the castle looming in the twilight.

If she avoids looking at it, the scene is really no different from any other ruin they've camped in over the last few weeks. Except it is much larger.

Parts of the camp are still being set up, and it takes her a few minutes to find Link. The set of his shoulders is always strange when he's supervising the troops, but there's an added layer of oddness tonight. His anxiety is high.

He approaches her right away when he sees her. It's odd, because he usually ignores her for a bit. 

"I need you to warp red and green teams to Tarrey Town."

She momentarily forgets that she's supposed to be stoic. "I beg your pardon?"

"We're behind schedule and it will take my teams at least two days to reach Tarrey Town. Then at least four to escort Bolson Construction and all their equipment back. That doesn't leave them much time to prepare the site for the next meeting."

Zelda really doesn't know what difference two days could make, or why this has to happen right this second, when Bolson will refuse to leave until at least tomorrow morning after breakfast (maybe later if he's irritated that he's received such little warning). But Link is absolutely serious, and there's also no reason to refuse.

The Sheikah still don't want to touch her, and the Gerudo notice that and make a big deal about throwing their arms over her shoulders, leaning on her too heavily and squeezing her too tight. Once she's warped the Gerudo team members, she shows the Sheikah how to hold onto her belt and warps them one after the other to the shrine above Tarrey Town. Tarrey Town, Castle Town, Tarrey Town, Castle Town. She's lightheaded by the time she finishes her mission, and she's expecting that the camp will be set up enough that she'll be able to speak to Link.

He's waiting for her beside his tent when she reappears, and she expects him to flash her the hint of a smile or an eye roll or some hint at the fact that it's just the two of them.

"I need you to take these to Vah Medoh," he says, holding out a stack of sealed letters. "They're to each of the representatives, informing them of our status."

She opens her mouth to ask what’s wrong with him, but shuts it again. She takes the letters and warps to Vah Medoh in the sky above the Gerudo Highlands. She should have changed clothes before warping, but she manages to dash inside before she freezes to death. The chillshrooms still lingering on her hands aren't helping. She waves to Amali and sorts the mail herself.

When she warps back to Castle Town, Link has vanished. She could look for him, but he might have another mission for her, and she’d rather not. Instead, she slips into his tent to wait. It’s much warmer once she’s wrapped herself in his blanket. It feels as if every time she warped, she got a bit more whispy. The blanket smells like Link in a way that's missing from her cot in the Eldin workroom, in a way that’s vanishing from her sheets at home.

She only realizes that she's fallen asleep when Link wakes her by shuffling around in the dark.

"Oh! What time is it?"

"Late. Go back to sleep." He slips into bed beside her, shifting her easily so she can lie half on top of him. His sleep clothes are soft, and she buries her nose against his neck to breathe in the scent of him, stronger even than his blanket.

"Are you okay?" she whispers.

"They're not ready to go into the castle," he says. "There's some nasty stuff right on the other side of the moat, but we're setting up camp here and calling in a bunch of people."

"You didn't have to notify everyone so quickly."

"The Sheikah were about to beat me to it."

She groans. "It's not acceptable for them to undermine your authority like that."

There's nothing to say to that, so he just shrugs helplessly.

She pushes herself up on an elbow. It’s hard to see him in the dark, but she’s going to look at him properly anyway. "They asked you to take command, so they need to let you be in charge! They can't have it both ways."

"Pretty sure they can."

"I'm going to bring this up with Cado. And Impa. If you have serious concerns about the committee's safety, those concerns should be heeded. Not undermined. I hope you sent packing whoever was thinking of causing trouble."

"Yeah. I sent them to Tarrey Town."

"You..." She stares down at him. In the darkness, she can just make out the smile spreading across his face.

"They're not going to pass through Kakariko on the way,” he says. “With Bolson keeping an eye on them, they can't pass through on their way back either."

She relaxes back down onto his chest. "That's very clever, general."

"Yeah, I thought so."

"What are you going to do now?"

He sighs. "I've got guards set up by the north gate, so hopefully nothing gets across the moat. If anything does, we'll have fair warning. I need to train everyone up to take on a lynel. Maybe we can practice on some little ones. There's one in the coliseum. That could be good. There's some armor there that I want."

Of course. She settles more heavily against his chest. "Did you get any armor today?"

The tension in his body shifts from anxious to excited. "I did. Pulled it out of the fountain at the Sacred Grounds this morning."

Sleepily, she asks, "Do I want to know what it is?"

"It's a huge chest plate!"

"That sounds nice."

He kisses her temple, then whispers in her ear, "It's _purple_!"


	11. Before the 3rd meeting

She warps into Castle Town after midnight, watches from the shadows for a long moment, and then slips into Link's tent.

She doesn't want to sleep at the camp. Or, more precisely, she doesn't want anyone to _see_ her sleep at the camp. At the moment, it's a military base, and she really has no business there, especially when the families of the rest of the troop can't visit whenever they wish. The Gerudo take her presence as a sign that Link's not the stoic general they were promised. And there's no need to give the Sheikah any ideas that she's already moved into Castle Town.

Aside from all the political implications, it's easier to just go back to Eldin and spend the night in the workshop than it is to sneak into Link's tent. She's pulling long hours getting all the flowers together, dipping them in vats of fireproof elixir, and slapping paint on them with progressively sloppier brush strokes. After her nightly visits with Link, she heads back to her workshop and works until she passes out on top of a flower, only to be woken at dawn by the morning drums of the Goron Blood Brothers' training sessions. 

She intends to wake Link, but he's on his cot with a book held up over his head, the tent lit by a luminous stone. Funny that she didn't see the glow from outside. Has he done something to his tent to make it darker?

He drops his book onto his chest and blinks at her. "Hey."

A few days ago, he'd taken a strike team north to Hyrule Ridge and then swept around the Lost Woods, so they ended up fighting four lynels for practice. When they were done, he set a warp point, and Zelda warped them all back to the shrine nearest Castle Town, just in time for the Sheikah delegation to arrive three days ahead of schedule. The troop have never worked together so seamlessly than they did when they successfully hid the horrible gash on Iazol's leg from Cado and his entourage. Link and Lemaissee, Iazol's Sheikah partner, carried her to the medical tent, while green team scouted a clear path, and yellow and orange teams set up a diversion. They all took too much fairy tonic, and Link announced that, aside from the leg, a concussion, and what's probably three broken ribs, the strike team did well.

Zelda warped back to Eldin before Cado could notice she was there.

That was eight hours ago.

Now, she holds a finger to her lips and whispers, "Can you get away for a bit?"

He drops his book and pulls on his boots.

She warps them straight from the tent, and Link blinks in the dark, trying to figure out where they are. It's not that hard as there's an obvious view of the castle through the trees. As soon as he orients himself, he turns to her, hooks their hands together, and gives her an adoring grin.

"Honestly," she says, "I have no idea why you haven't done this sooner."

"I haven't had a good excuse to slip away." He leans in to kiss her briefly. "How was your day?"

She huffs as they start to walk. "I finally finished splicing the belly section of Rudania's harness into place."

"So it's done?"

"It...is the correct shape. Tomorrow we'll begin fireproofing the ropes, and then, of course, we'll need to test it."

"By walking Rudania up the volcano and seeing if anything lights on fire."

"Yes."

He grins. "How many flowers do you have left?"

"Twenty-eight," she says. "Shockingly, I already have all the materials I need to assemble the rest. So that means, at this point, I am the one who's slowing down the process."

"Yeah. If only you were working instead of sneaking into my tent."

She elbows him.

They come out of the woods and start climbing a small hill. Link pauses about half way up, and Zelda unlaces their fingers as he sorts through his equipment.

"Now I'm second guessing myself. You did fight a lynel this morning."

"I didn't do much fighting. And even if I had, that was this morning."

"Forever ago."

"I haven't fought a big monster in so long. I'm gonna get fancy."

"That sounds delightful."

He latches a cobble crusher to his back, rushes to give her one last kiss, and then climbs the rest of the hill alone.

Since they made camp in Castle Town, Link has had the troop avoid this area. In his absence while he was off hunting lynels, he set up patrol routes that didn't come here. She thought the gaping hole to be quite obvious. It was only a matter of time before someone noticed and called Link out for his negligent methods, or someone went to investigate and found the talus that he hadn't previously killed.

Zelda follows, even though she probably shouldn't. She stays low to the ground, and shifts around the hill so she can approach from a different angle. It's dark, and if she stays low, the talus won't see her.

Can taluses see?

Link runs towards the pile of stones that make up the sleeping talus. He flies past it, getting a few good boot prints onto the monster's head before the ground shakes and the talus rumbles out of the ground. Twenty feet away, while the monster is still rising, he skids to a stop, swings around, and drops to one knee. Revali's gale erupts around him, and he's launched into the air as the monster finds its feet. In the air, he tucks away his paraglider and pulls out his bow mid-fall. He fires off six arrows so fast that Zelda only sees them when they explode in huge, billowing balls of fire against the talus' back. She squints in the sudden light, the fire heating her face.

The monster falls forward, and she next sees Link standing on its back, swinging his cobble crusher, one, two, three, four times before the sky sparks with lightning that crashes down around him.

She stands as the talus puffs out of existence and gemstones tumble onto the ground. Link tucks away chunks of sapphire and topaz, looking rather pleased with himself. He smacks a kiss to her cheek. "That was fun. Short. But fun."

"You should get to enjoy yourself. Every now and then."

He laces their fingers back together as they head down the hill and towards the old Castle Town Prison. The prison used to be an ominous building with crenelations and no windows. Lit up in the moonlight with weeds climbing their way in, the ruins actually look more welcoming than the way it was.

Link slips the slate from her hip and uses magnesis to find and haul up a treasure chest. He pulls a wad of green cloth of indeterminate shape from the chest, holds it up, and grins at it. She groans. She does not want to see the rest of the fairy outfit.

But Link is stripping off his belts and shirts and bunching up the fabric and stretching it enough to pull his head through. He struggles to get his hands all the way through the long sleeves, and has to pinch at the fabric up and down his arm to get it to fall into place. It's a similar method to the way she used to get stockings to settle. 

When he gets it in place, she narrows her eyes at him. It's so tight against his chest that she can make out shadows of his musculature. With his completely normal pants and without a silly hat, it doesn't look all that bad. She wouldn't mind touching it. The thought is a bit frustrating, so she looks away.

Link pulls out a mess of belts next, and quickly untwists them until they look like a harness which he shrugs into, adjusting the buckles until it's tight as well. The harness pulls back his shoulders so his chest puffs out, and...that's fine.

But then he pulls out an overly-large pocket watch that hangs from an overly long chain. His grin grows as he drapes it around his neck and lets it hang right in the center of his chest.

He's ruined the effect, and she hates it again.

When he looks up at her to see how much she dislikes it, she's already glaring at him. The proud look on his face grows even more intense. He eases toward her, something almost predatory in his motions except for the fact that she doesn't respond to it in the slightest. His hands find her waist, his palms warm through her thin shirt. She keeps her hands at her sides, refusing to touch his new shirt.

He lowers his face to hers until he's a breath away. With the harness adjusting his posture, he's a good half inch taller than usual. "Thank you."

"You're welcome, although I'm reconsidering now."

His hold on her shifts to her elbows, drags down her arms to her wrists, guides her hands to his sides.

She has something cheeky on the tip of her tongue when her fingers brush against his sides and she loses her train of thought. "Oh! It's soft! Why is this fabric so soft? What sort of material is this?" She leans in to peer closer in the dark, running a hand straight up his chest to feel the fabric closer to her face. "It stretches so much for something so thin. What kind of material--"

He cuts her investigation short by ducking in and sealing his mouth over hers. Her string of questions turns into a low hum as she presses a hand to his face and lets him draw her close.

She ends up in his lap, so she's taller than him again, his back pressed to the remains of a stone wall. They pull desperately at each other, their breath loud and gasping, both of them more vocal than usual. She breaks the kiss to grab the ridiculous watch caught between them, yanking it over his head and tossing it aside, then eating all his protests as she dives back into the kiss. She tries and fails to ruck up his shirt. It's too tight to get off, and therefore not worth it. She can get in his pants much more easily.

He moans into her mouth, and she breaks the kiss again to hold up her hand to his face, and order him to _lick_. He does so with enthusiasm, his tongue thick and wet against her palm. As he sucks her fingers into his mouth, he looks up at her with something between a plea and a dare in his dark eyes. She pulls her hand away and, with her dry hand in his hair, pulls his head back and kisses him hard, locking them together, refusing let him gasp her name anywhere but into her mouth. His moans belong to her, and she won't let them be lost to the air. He only grows louder as she strokes him, the reverberations of his groans rolling into her chest, his breath sharp against her cheek, his body tense beneath her. His tongue pulses against hers as he says _yes_. Her blood sings. She clutches at the harness at his shoulder instead of his hair, and she holds on, bracing herself as she picks up the pace and he starts to tremble.

He comes apart in her arms, in her hand, and she kisses him through it, not releasing him until he's boneless and comfortable beneath her. She presses a soft kiss to his cheek and sits up to survey her good work. 

Yes. Very fine work indeed.

"Did you ruin my new shirt?" he asks, still catching his breath, eyes still closed.

"No. It looks as if I managed to get it rucked up enough." She digs through her supplies for something to get him cleaned up. "It's a pity really."

"I'm onto you."

"Yes. Well. We'll see if forewarning of my intentions makes any difference."

He snorts. "Good point." He rubs a hand over his face, then reaches up an tucks her hair behind her ear. "You should take the watch."

"What on earth would make you think that I want it?"

"You like fancy mechanical things, and you're always worried about being late."

"I--"

He lifts an eyebrow at her.

She can't think of a counter argument. 

He plucks the watch off the ground and threads the chain through one of the loops on her belt, knotting it in such a way that it actually looks quite nice. Not that she'd admit it.

She bends forward to kiss his forehead, and tucks him back into his pants, which makes him cringe slightly. She sits back, and he shrugs out of the harness, then requires her help to get out of the shirt. They help each other to their feet, and he gets his Champion's tunic and the Master Sword back in place as they walk. It's almost nice to walk, knowing they won't be attacked by monsters. He wraps an arm around her waist, pulling her close, nuzzling into her neck. She supposes she did cut his post-coital snuggle time short. Maybe they can cuddle more when they get back to the tent.

She's plotting the easiest way to slip in and spend the night when they hear the first shouts. Then the carrying, mournful call of a horn. Link freezes beside her, then drops her waist and takes off running.

The camp is in chaos. Soldiers stream towards the castle, strapping quivers into place and tossing equipment to one another as they move. She's lost sight of Link. "What's happening?" she shouts. No one has time to question why she's there.

"Lynel on the bridge," orange team shouts back, running past her before she can find out more. Not that there's much more she needs to know.

"Your Highness!"

She curses herself for spinning around.

Cado marches up with the Sheikah delegation behind him. He's still adjusting his hat, clearly woken by the commotion. "What are you doing here?"

"I requested that you not call me that."

"There's a lynel on the bridge. Come. You shouldn't be here." He holds out a hand to her, and scans the area behind her.

She doesn't want to be anywhere near the lynel, but she also can't leave until she knows everyone is safe, and knows why one of the lynels decided to leave the castle after so many years living contentedly in the gatehouses. She wishes she knew which lynel it is.

"We must get you to safety."

A shock arrow pierces the ground on the other side of the bonfire, exploding in a dome of green static. A second later, one of the tents between them and the castle is thrown aside as the blue-manned lynel swigs his axe. Link holds onto the lynel's belt with one hand, his feet skidding against the ground. With the other hand, he has the Master Sword lodged into the beast's side right into the leg muscles. The beast pulls to the side as it charges, almost as if Link is steering it. Zilasi is on the monster's back, chopping at its neck with a savage lynel sword she pilfered from one of the beast's kin, one fist locked in its mane so she doesn't lose her balance even as the beast rears. Her partner, Esha, darts in front of the beast, hitting it in the face with three arrows at once, before darting away, Phebi popping up to the left to shoot three more arrows, drawing its attention while Edgar shoots three more from the right, the whole nine shot maneuver taking less than five seconds. They're all armed with savage lynel bows. Jelria darts in close, running in a quick move she picked up from the Sheikah. As she slides under the beast and hacks upwards at its belly, her partner, Phebi, hits it from the other side while Link changes the angle of his sword, distracting the monster so she can roll out from under the stomping hooves.

A half dozen hands grab at Zelda, pulling her backwards as Cado steps in front of her. Green team darts in close, Edgar's partner hitting the beast across the face with a shield so his partner, Sootveil, can deal a blow to its hamstring. It falls to its knees, Link and Zilasi rolling away. The next arrows are bomb arrows, and the beast roars in agony from within the flames. It rears back and then collapses. It vanishes in a puff of smoke, leaving the strike team in a perfectly formed circle, poised for another attack.

When it's clear the attack isn't coming, they sag. They're collecting and distributing the lynel's weapons, when Cado pulls himself to his full height and stomps toward Link. "How did that lynel get into the camp!"

Link wipes sweat from his forehead. "Don't know. But I've got a wild guess that it came across the bridge from the castle."

"How did it get past your defenses? Why didn't you clear out the castle earlier?"

Link crosses his arms over his chest and gives Cado a blank stare.

"Hey," Sootveil shouts, "you're the one who wanted to move in before we had the place secure."

"The strike team _just_ got back," Esha says. The they’ve formed a loose semi-circle at Link's back. "We'd planed to head into the castle tomorrow."

"And I'm supposed to give you credit for being a day late?" Cado snaps. 

Esha drops his head and ducks back, which makes his partner, Zilasi, puff up defensively. "We’re not late! You're three days early!"

"This is a military camp," Sootveil says. "There aren't supposed to be civilians here. You can't be mad that it's dangerous."

"There aren't supposed to be civilians, and yet Her Highness is here, and your inattentiveness put her in danger!"

Link's whole body stiffens.

Zelda wants to scream. Link's fear for her safety is one of his few weak points, and Cado's pointed attack there is uncalled for. She chose to be here. She could have warped away at any point. She was never in any danger as evidenced by the fact that the strike team clearly took care of it. 

And she told Cado _not to call her that_.

She chokes on the rage building in her throat when Zilasi demands, "Who?" And she realizes she can say nothing without in some way owning the title.

"This army is a disgrace. I'm disbanding it immediately."

The troop at Link's back stiffens. Their defensive stances are not at all subtle.

“We just took down a Lynel! That’s not a disgrace,” Jelria says.

"You don't have the authority to disband us," Link says. His voice is low and dangerous. "The troop is under the authority of the council."

"I have the authority to recall the Sheikah."

Esha changes his grip on his sword. Phebi's eyes dart between Link and Cado.

"Sure. And I'll tell the council next week that they're all deserters," Link says.

"Hardy deserters when they support the _true_ government of Hyrule. Not this council nonsense."

Zelda wants to stab him. It’s getting harder to bite her lip.

Link's eyes shift to the Sheikah at his side--Edgar who has learned to use a shield, Phebi who let Jelria braid her hair. At this point, they would follow Link's orders unquestioningly. And in doing so they would go against the will of the Sheikah.

Link uncrosses his arms, lets his posture loosen even though Zelda can tell that it's an act. "Fine. Take them. Our job is almost done here anyway. But I'd request you let these three stay another day so we can get the last lynel in the castle."

"No. And since you've proven incapable of protecting her, we're taking the princess with us."

Without thinking, she storms forward and shouts, “You will do no such thing! You have absolutely no authority over my person.” She barely notices that Link’s shouting at the same time. “Lay a hand on her-“ “Utter presumptiveness—“ “Rip your arm off-“ “Absolutely appalling—“ “Badgering her constantly—“ “Lack of respect towards the general—“ “Like to see you try—“ “Unbecoming of a—“

Another tent is flattened, and Zelda squeaks as everyone twists around to face the second Lynel, who throws his arms back and roars. Then charges.

Cado grabs her arm and throws her to the side, then faces the creature with an elaborate hand gesture and a jerk of his arms. It’s as if a solid wall of sound explodes from his hands and rips toward the lynel, blasting it to the side, where it hits the dirt, skids, and explodes. 

When the dust clears, there’s no more lynel. Only an assortment of weaponry and organs.

Cado snorts. “There,” he says. “The Sheikah warriors leave tomorrow.”


	12. The 3rd Meeting

Minutes from the third meeting of the Hyrule Reconstruction Committee.

-People who are here: Zelda, Link, Deltan, Teba, Rohan, Sidon, Reede, Mubs, and Rhondson (me)

-Absent: Cado and the rest of his Sheikah friends, including the guy who used to keep the minutes (I don't know his name).

-Link reports that the troop cleared the southern coast and Faron Provence of monsters. Mubs is thankful and talks about all the "great" things they're doing now that it's safe. Link is all humble. It's annoying. He goes on and says that the troop also cleared central Hyrule and the castle of monsters. They had small teams to escort delegates and the Bolson Construction Company, but now the roads are safe and he's not going to do that anymore. 

-Rohan wants to know what happened and where the Sheikah went. Link avoids the question and says that the troop has served its purpose and they should disband. He and the Gerudo half of the troop will march back to Gerudo town, removing the remaining monster presence between Castle Town and Gerudo Town. He makes a motion about it. Everyone but Zelda (and me) throws a hissy fit. 

-Deltan says that she heard that there was a lynel attack and that Cado was so ticked off that he took all the Sheikah and walked, also that the Sheikah have secret magic, and that the they're being super weird about Zelda. Zelda has nothing to say about this, no matter how much we all stare at her in awkward silence. 

-Sidon asks if they're mad that Zelda doesn't want to be queen (???). Everyone throws a hissy fit. Link slams his head down on the table. Zelda interrupts everyone to say that, yes, several of the Sheikah think she should be queen (???) and are upset that she is not interested in doing that. As if that would be an option.

-Teba asks why the Sheikah think that's an option. Zelda says that's not important. Sidon says, "Because she's the Princess of Hyrule." Deltan wants to know what _that_ means. Reede wants to know if they're talking about "the stories." Sidon says that she is the crown princess of Hyrule and has the power of the Goddess and held back the Calamity for a hundred years until Link was healed, and together they were able to defeat the Calamity.

No one really knows what to make of this, and we all just kind of stare at each other. 

Teba finally says, "Well. That's...interesting."

Link lifts his head off the table to say, "I move that we make Zelda queen of Hyrule. Do I have a second?" He does not. "Okay. See? It's not an issue. Can we move on?"

-So basically, this meeting is super awkward, but everyone agrees that we shouldn't disband the army. Rohan thinks that a standing army could be useful, and he's right. Teba says that there are still monsters in Hebra, as if anyone cares. Deltan says that an all Gerudo army should be fine, and they don't need the Sheikah. Reede thinks there should be a volunteer army with other races invited, as if Hylians are actually going to show up. Rohan moves to make the army volunteer and keep it around. Only Link and Zelda vote no. The Sheikah abstain. The motion passes, so the army is sticking around with some new recruits coming in from Hateno if they feel like it. That part was unclear.

#

Zelda is exhausted and ready to collapse into Link's tent. She supposes that the meeting could have gone much worse, but they basically got nothing done today. Her presentation of Vah Rudania (who looks lovely) was pushed back to tomorrow. The Sheikah's absence looms over the whole proceedings. 

Link is trying to rub a knot out of his own shoulder, annoyed that he still has to lead an army, now composed entirely of Gerudo, which she has to admit is a very odd sight. She half suspects that at tomorrow's meeting he'll suggest just handing over army duties to the Gerudo. Or maybe he's coming up with a plan to take the troop to Hebra to clear out the monsters and get at least one representative on board with disbanding.

She opens the tent flap for him, but half-way through the door, he freezes. She peaks in over his shoulder.

Paya is sitting on the chest at the foot of his cot. Link frowns at her and steps all the way into the tent, pulling himself taller and crossing his arms over his chest.

Zelda's exhaustion comes through as she says, "Hello, Paya."

Paya sounds tired too as she says, "Your—Z—Zelda. Master Link."

Link rolls his eyes.

"I think we—we should talk."

Zelda takes a seat on the cot, pulling her knee up to face Paya, leaving Link to stand grumpily at the door. 

"Are you gonna accuse me of not being able to protect her too?" Link asks.

Paya's face turns bright red.

Zelda shoots him a dirty look. "It's Paya! She hasn't been anything but kind to us."

"I ap-apologize," Paya says, "on Cado's behalf. He...over-reacted."

"He did. But it's hardly your fault," Zelda says.

Link huffs, and Zelda glares at him again.

But he doesn't calm down. Instead he demands, "What was that magic he did? It looked Yiga."

Zelda blinks at him in confusion. His eyes dart back and forth between them, narrowing the longer they stare at him.

She shakes her head. "That's Sheikah battle magic."

"What do you mean? I've never seen it before. And I’m the ‘general.’”

"Of course, you've—Oh!” She sits up straighter in surprise. “Oh, you wouldn't have since—They only use it to protect the royal family."

Paya nods. "We-We haven't used it outside Kakariko in a cen-century. I th-think Cado got a bit...excited."

Link gapes at them. "You mean...I've been leading a troop of Sheikah for weeks, and they all had _battle magic_ that they just _weren't using_ and didn't feel like mentioning it?"

Zelda’s cheeks heat. She doesn't have a good answer to that. She's known their capabilities the whole time (which she shouldn't mention), but never pieced together that Link wouldn't remember seeing it before (which she also shouldn't mention), and she knew that the Sheikah weren't going to use their magic while she wasn't around, so it never would have occurred to her to mention it. The moment stretches until Link rolls his eyes in frustration and digs a thumb into his forehead between his eyes as if he has a headache.

"That's...s-something I wish to—I wish to speak with you about," Paya says.

Zelda turns back to her, giving her full attention.

"After the last Calamity, ten th-thousand years ago, even though our-our technology helped defeat the Calamity, people were still—they were afraid of the technology's power. We were ordered to-to bury everything, and that knowledge w-was lost. We-we didn’t want our magic t-taken from us too. We swore—we swore to keep it s-secret. We only use it in service of royalty."

Zelda nods. "I always thought it was ridiculous that the technology was so distrusted, but I can see now how people could be fearful of the Divine Beasts even after seeing how much good they can do."

"Y-yes. And now, after this-this Calamity, some of us—some of us—we worry that you are—you’re taking away more of our identity. You want to t-take away our sworn-sworn oaths to the cr-cr-crown."

Zelda sighs heavily. "Paya, I can't be queen."

"I know," she said. "The country...would not embrace a mon-monarchy. I-I believe that's our f-fault. We didn't keep your memory alive in people's-people’s hearts. In their minds. Instead we hid away in Kak-Kakariko and waited. I un-understand, and I know that you're leading Hyrule even without the-without the cr-crown...But oth-others don't see this. And they are more and more afraid. More and more frust-frust-frust-frustrated."

It's Zelda's turn to rub her forehead.

"I fear," Paya says her voice lowering to a whisper, "...a second schism is coming."

Zelda’s head snaps up as Link's posture shifts. "What? Surely it's not that bad."

"Not-not yet. But the rift grows."

She and Link share boggled looks before she turns back to Paya. "What can we do?"

She sighs. “I don't know. I'm here to re-replace Cado on the committee, and I've...brought four-four Sheikah warriors. They vol-volenteer to join the-the army. That is...assuming the army is o-opened to v-volunteers?"

"How'd you know that?" Link asks.

She flushes again. "I ass-assumed."

"Who did you bring?"

"Your lynel strike team."

Link's body sags in relief.

"I'm here to l-keep the Sheikah in-involved...in the w-workings of Greater Hyrule, and to c-c-carry on our friendship with you. But. I fear that our-our just being here might push-push the Sheikah factions fur-further a-apart."

Zelda nods as she chews on her lower lip. "When the meeting is over, I'd like to visit Kakriko. We could see if we can work something out?"

Paya nods. "I'll arrange it."

"I feel like there's a _but_ there."

"I'll...pray for the best." But they probably won't get it.

"Thank you."

Paya stands, nods a partial bow to Zelda and a shorter bow to Link, and leaves.

Zelda sighs and flops backwards onto the bed. A moment later, Link comes to sit by her side and take off his boots.

"This is less than ideal," she says, staring at the tent's roof.

"That's one way to put it." He groans and drops down next to her, sliding his arm onder her shoulders and nudging her to roll onto her side so they fit better on the small cot.

"I need to give them something. To appease them."

"You think anything less than a crown will do?"

She rubs her eyes. "There has to be something."

He says nothing.

"Are you still mad?" she asks.

"Zel, you should have heard them complain about how hard the first couple lynels were."

She covers her mouth with her hand in a poorly veiled attempt to hide a laugh. It doesn't help that her stomach is pressed against his side when it jumps with laughter, or that he can clearly see the smile on the rest of her face from four inches away.

"You wouldn't expect it, because they try to act serious, but—not only are the Sheikah masters at passive aggression—they're also super whiny. Almost as bad as Hateno."

She laughs harder.

"I don't know," he says. "Maybe it is really hard for them to fight monsters when they aren't _cheating with magic_."

"You're just jealous that you can't teleport and split yourself into duplicates."

"I'm _very_ jealous that I can't teleport and split myself into duplicates! I'm the hero. They should teach me that."

She pushes herself up on an elbow to kiss him, and he pulls back after a moment to say, "You know, it'd help keep you safe if I knew that stuff."

"Right."

She climbs over him, off the cot and around to the chest to get changed for the night. She moves aside Link's silly fairy outfit, digging to find her sleep clothes. She could swear she put them right on top this morning. They must have gotten moved around when she got changed for the meeting. She digs until she finds a set of clothes she hasn't seen before. Probably one of Link's new acquisitions. Funny because he didn't preen about them. He must have been too busy.

It's hard to tell what they are, but the fabric is thick. Dark red and dark blue with gold embroidery and—

She finds the hat. 

A beret. 

Link found a royal guard uniform.

And then stuffed it in a trunk.

She puts the hat back and digs a bit more as she tries to wrestle her face back under control. A moment later, she finds her comfy pants. She closes the lid a bit too quickly, deciding to pretend she didn't see the uniform.


	13. After the Third Meeting

The committee clearly finds it odd that Paya is there the next day as the Sheikah representative. They shoot her confused looks but say nothing. Paya does not introduce herself. She keeps her head lowered and stays silent. All her votes are the same as Zelda's.

But the rest of the committee moves on, even though it’s at a disjointed pace. 

Teba says that Vah Medoh needs permanent places to land at every one of her stops. Her spot outside Gerudo Town is crumbling under the Divine Beast’s weight. The hill outside Lurelin has had a rock lide. Even in Rito Village, it's difficult to unload Vah Medoh because she's so high above the city. Once again, Teba presents a set of weighty proposals with designs and budgets for every project.

But Deltan wants the perch to be designed with consultation from the Gerudo, who are in the process of rebuilding several of cultural sites throughout the desert. Sidon is concerned about transporting the building materials for a new perch into the Zora’s Domain. Mining within the Domain is regulated "to preserve the Domain’s natural beauty,” and he's further concerned that Teba's designs will “clash” with the blue crystal. On looking at the proposals, it looks as though Teba's team took great care to match each region's architecture. It's clear to Zelda that Teba wants to rip Sidon's head off, but he refrains. 

Mubs, however, says that Lurelin relies on Vah Medoh, and they also need that hillside intact. She moves to go forward on Teba's plans as quickly as possible, even if other groups need time to redesign. Teba perks with excitement that someone finally wants to do one of his projects. He and Mubs go over details for quite some time. The rest of the committee stops paying attention.

Rhondson causes some drama by saying that the Bolson Construction Company should be allowed to offer a competing bid. And then Sidon causes more drama by wondering out loud if it's a conflict of interest for the Tarrey Town representative to be a member of Bolson Construction. And now Rhondson wants to rip his head off too, even if he might have a point. There's a conflict of interest here, but with the entire population of Tarrey Town employed by Bolson Construction, there's not much to be done unless Tarrey Town doesn't get a representative.

"Bolson Construction is currently busy with the Castle Town Restoration," Zelda says. "If we want this done in a timely manner, we'll have to diversify and use other builders." 

She thinks that she's diplomatic when she says this, but Rhondson now looks as though she wants to rip off Zelda's head as well.

Once they've decided to build the perch in Lurelin and Rito Village, Deltan asks for assistance rebuilding the cultural sites in the desert. Zelda perks at this, but Sidon and Mubs don't want to spend money on it. Zelda sighs and wonders if she needs permission to fund the Gerudo's restoration efforts.

Finally, it's her turn to present, and she pins a few large sheets of paper to the wall to give an overview of the process creating Vah Rudania's harness. She shows the planning images, and then leads everyone outside to see the finished product. She and Yunobo have arranged to have Vah Rudania standing majestically, brilliant in the sunlight, decked out in the glow of blue flowers. More than one committee members makes an awed noise, and she tries not to preen too hard. They've been practicing some non-threatening poses and found that, if Vah Rudania tilts her head in such a way, that she actually looks cute. A bit like a dog. 

Yunobo brings her closer, showing off how gently the Divine Beast can walk, even through the ruins of Castle Town. The ground quivers but doesn't shake. She checks on Reede out of the corner of her eye, and he seems more wary than terrified, which she considers an improvement.

"Our construction on the road between Dueling Peaks and Fort Hateno will begin next week," she says.

"Should we dress up the others too?" Mubs asks.

Teba says, "Vah Ruta doesn't move and Vah Naboris doesn't leave the desert. Vah Medoh would be the only one worth it."

They all nod, their attention still mostly focused on the Divine Beast.

Link leans in to murmur in her ear. "You're going to put flowers on Vah Medoh, aren't you?"

She elbows him away. She only has the start of a design in mind.

#

When the meeting is over, she has a few days to head back to Hateno, where she'll work on her new slate. It will be a few days before the Gorons arrive at Dueling Peaks Stable to begin work, and it feels unnecessary to supervise Bolson as he does more construction on Castle Town. 

Link is going to stay in Castle Town for the time being. He has a big map of Hyrule spread over the table in the meeting house, and he and a couple members of the troop are shading in areas that they've already cleared out and marking the locations of big monsters. The Gerudo shut down his idea of heading straight into Hebra, mostly because they don't want to be cold. Instead they're going to sweep into Tabantha and work their way north. Maybe they'll get outfitted in Rito Village, or maybe by then it will be time to come back for the next meeting.

Zelda doesn't care for the idea that he'll be on the road for a month.

She finds Kass, giving a "farewell and good luck" performance. When he's done and everyone is loading onto Vah Medoh, she tries to give him back his lyre.

"Keep it for as long as you need," he says, pushing it back into her hands. "With me, it's only part of a collection, but with you it can sing."

"More like with Link it can sing," she says.

His head tilts in interest. "Really? I didn't know Link was musical."

"Neither did Link."

"Hmm. Don't be jealous," Kass says.

"I'm not jealous!"

"Spend some time practicing, and you'll get better."

This is really not the conversation she wants to be having, so she lets the matter of her abysmal musical skills fall away.

She looks down at the lyre, a crease building between her eyebrows. "What can you tell me about this instrument?"

"It's Zora made. This one by the great craftsman and musician Luluel. It's made from a great turtle shell from turtles found only in the River of the Dead on the Great Plateau. But since no one has been able to reach the river in decades, this is one among the last that were ever made."

"Is it a common instrument among the Zora?"

"Most aren't as elaborate as this one. They're made from wood or shell. But...let's just say that whenever you're getting a group of musicians together in the Domain, you always end up with twice as many lyre players as you need, and no one to cover the bass part."

"Ah."

"I can play the lyre!" Sidon announces, bounding up from behind her. She laughs and offers it to him, and he puffs out his chest and plucks out a simple tune that Zelda doesn't know. He plays it well, but it reminds her quite a bit of "Hot Cross Buns." When he's done, he bows dramatically to her delighted applause and presents the lyre back to her. Kass's applause is quieter on account of how his wingtips are silent as they clap together. And maybe a little because the performance wasn't very impressive.

"It's true," Sidon says. "I'm not very good at it."

"You're much better than me, so I heartily disagree."

"We should get Link to play us something." Sidon looks around. "He was truly gifted. It's one of the few things I remember about him."

“You…know about that?”

"Of course! Has he never played for you? Ask him to play the Tuklu Aria. Simply wonderful."

The plumage on the back of Kass' head rises, and when Zelda gives him a questioning look, he shakes his head and forces the feathers back down. "That's a difficult piece."

This has all left her with more questions than answers.

As soon as Vah Medoh leaves with most of the delegates, Zelda is ready to get back to Hateno. She's outside the south gate with Link, making plans for when they'll meet up again when Paya rushes out to join them. 

"I'm—I'm coming with you."

Zedla frowns, more in confusion than irritation. "Why?"

"You need a guard."

Zelda rolls her eyes. "I'm just going to Hateno. I'll spend most of my time with Purah and Symin."

Paya's eyes dart around. "If—if you want to—to win over more Sheikah, you could agree to a guard. It doesn't—y-you don't have to—not because you're queen."

"Just because?" Zelda says.

Paya nods.

Zelda trades a look with Link. She doesn't care for that at all. She's not special and does not deserve special treatment.

"I think it's a good idea," Link says.

"I beg your pardon."

"Yeah, we talked about it and—"

"You _what_?"

"Cado makes me nervous, and if I'm not there to protect you—"

"Protect me from Cado?! He wants me to be queen. He's not going to _hurt me_."

"Zel...you know he's been keeping an eye on you since that night with the lynel, right?"

She blinks at him, her head twitches in denial.

"H-he's on the pa-pa-parapet," Paya says. Neither of them turn to look.

Zelda searches the remains of the city wall over their shoulders, looking for him. If he's there, he's making himself invisible.

"It's just Paya," Link says. "She's fun."

Paya's face turns bright red. "I won't get in the way," she mutters.

Zelda rolls her eyes. "Fine."

They both deflate in relief, and Link steps up to kiss her goodbye with a smile. "See ya tomorrow."

"You're both infuriating."

"Love you too."

She huffs and reaches out for Paya, pulling her into an awkward half-hug. Link waves as they warp away.

"This is fine," Zelda announces as she throws open the door to the tech lab. Purah gives her an unsurprised look over the top of her glasses. "The Sheikah will be appeased that they're upholding their sworn duty to protect me. I hate having a babysitter no matter who they are, but Link has grown on me, so perhaps if I consider you a friend rather than an obligation, this won't be so bad."

Paya looks pale.

"You have a bodyguard?" Purah asks.

Zelda gestures to Paya.

"Good job, niecie! Working your way up in the ranks. Snap!"

"I have _all day_ free," Zelda announces, throwing out her arms. "What do you think we can accomplish?"

Purah drops all the papers in her hands onto the table and scrambles off her stool and up the ladder to the guidance stone.

#

Paya takes a nap in the afternoon when Symin puts a hand on the younger Sheikah's shoulder, jerks his head towards the bedroom upstairs, and then stands a bit closer to all the action at the guardian stone than he had previously. At first Zelda thinks it's simply a kindness, a way for Paya to take a break. 

But as she opens up the house by Frilly Pond and sets to running a damp rag over the table and switching out the sheets and getting dinner ready, she realizes that Paya intends to stay up all night.

Absurd.

She makes a meager dinner from the ingredients they have in the house and some milk she picked up in town, and then pulls out a journal and processes her notes on a tricky knot in the Sheikah slate tubing that she would like to redesign if she can do it in the next twelve hours or so. Paya tucks into the carrot soup, and finally relaxes enough to ask about what Zelda's doing. Then there's a knock on the door.

They exchange looks, Zelda's eyebrows raised because they almost never get visitors, and Paya's face pulled into a frown.

"Who is it?" she calls.

"Dantz," a voice calls. He's a farmer and was part of the Hateno delegation that she and Link escorted to the first reconstruction meeting.

Paya gets up to answer the door, and Dantz is visibly surprised to see someone other than Zelda.

"Hi. I, um, wanted to speak to Miss Zelda. About some work I'd like done on my farm?"

Paya gives him a narrow-eyed look, but opens the door to allow him in.

"Hello, Dantz. How are you?" Zelda asks, closing her journal and folding her hands over her book. He takes of his hat and holds it in his hands before him, and she suddenly feels very much like her father greeting a supplicant in his office.

"Miss Zelda. You know how you set up that water pipe to Reede's field last month? I was wondering if you could set something like that up for me. I'd pay you, of course. And I know you'd have to wait for the next guardian boat to get parts. So I'm willing to wait, and fit into your busy schedule, but I just want to get my name on the list, ya know?"

She blinks at him. "Well, yes. Yes, of course."

His hat spins faster. "How much do you charge?"

That’s a very good question, and something lights in her chest at the thought that she could make a living from this kind of thing. But that’s not the course her life has taken. Not yet anyway. She names a figure that would not at all be worth her labor if she cared about money, and he agrees to it with a frantic nod of his head. 

"I'll come look tomorrow, take some measurements, and make some diagrams," she says.

"Yeah, yeah, come by anytime!"

He's grinning as he presses his hat back onto his head and takes his leave, and Zelda can't help but smile too.

Paya takes a seat, and immediately pops up again as there's another knock at the door.

"Did he forget something?" Zelda asks.

"I don’t doubt it. It was a short meeting," Paya says. She holds the S in short out a bit, but doesn't stutter over it. And Zelda's smile grows that Paya is feeling more comfortable.

She opens the door and freezes. Zelda leans to the side to try to see around her, and jerks as Paya pops a knife from her sleeve into her hand, then teleports to the side faster than a blink as a condensed pocket of air burst straight in through the door, blowing aside the table, which throws Zelda to the floor, and smashing into the far wall and sending Daruk's Boulder Breaker swinging. Zelda grabs for the slate, ready to warp away as Paya throws the knife in her hand out the door and pulls a scythe from the small of her back. Outside, there's a squawk, and then a figure teleports into the middle of the room, hovering in the air for a moment, before something pinches Zelda's neck.

The figure before her lands, a short sword in his hand, ready to block Paya as she ducks in for a flurry of slashes. He's in a tight suit of dark blue, his mouth covered in cloth and a dark band drawn across his eyes in coal. Zelda's hand goes to her neck, and she winces as she draws out a feathered dart from the side of the neck. 

Paya splits, blue glowing duplicates mimicking her every movement just like the ancient monk who guarded Link's Divine Beast. They surround the intruder, and Zelda's vision blurs. Her body feels heavy.

There's a second intruder, hovering over her, grasping at his bleeding shoulder. She shifts a groggy hand to the slate, and warps away as he reaches for her.


	14. After the 3rd Meeting

Zelda wakes with one of the worst headaches she's ever had the displeasure to experience. To make it worse, her mouth is too dry to swallow, and she has no idea where she is.

She's in a narrow bed, curled on her side on top of a rather elaborate red comforter. She clutches at it, trying to get the room to stop swaying. The fabric is satiny in her fist—not real satin, but a decent attempt at a mimicry.

The room does not stop swaying, and it takes her a very long time to realize that's not her head's fault. The room is swaying.

The door eases open, and a man with blond hair peeks in at her. He beams when he sees that her eyes are open. "You're awake!"

She squints at him. "Am I on a ship?"

"You, my lady, are on the finest ship in all Hyrule."

She blinks as him slowly. "You're that...man with the ship."

"And you are the spitfire who absconded with my guardian parts." He grins at her and pulls up a stool to sit by the bed. She really ought to sit up. It would be polite, and she doesn't care for the angle at which she now looks at him. It's a bit too intimate and vulnerable. But then again, it doesn't bother her enough to actually move her body.

"How did I get here?"

"It is quit the mystery." His voice changes just so as he breaks into a voice for storytelling. He frames the distance with a thrown-out hand, looking off as he imagines the picture he paints with his words. "We were sailing through the fierce waters of the Lanayru Sea, when out in the water there was a golden sheen. It was like the sunrise, shining on the water, but it was early afternoon and the sun was to the west. We changed course to check if it was treasure. And indeed, it was the most brilliant of all treasures."

"I was in the ocean?"

"You'd washed onto a shrine that rose up from the sea. Good luck, that."

She groans. Out of all the places to blindly warp to. 

She supposes that it could have been worse. She could have ended up on top of a mountain and frozen to death.

He hands her a glass of water, and she struggles to haul herself up, accepting his help when he puts a hand between her shoulder blades. She downs the water in noisy gulps, then groans and flops back down. She catches her breath as he refills her glass from a pitcher. "How long have I been here?"

"We picked you up yesterday afternoon, and it's morning now."

"Yesterday afternoon?" She was hit with a tranquilizer dart in the early evening. She'd spent all night and half a day in the middle of the sea. "Is it Wednesday?"

"That's right."

"I need to...Where's my slate?"

"I beg your pardon."

"My slate. A rectangle this big. Made of the same material as the shrines."

"Ah! I remember you had that in Hateno." He shakes his head. "You didn't have it when we picked you up."

She surges upright as panic seizes her. “What do you mean I didn’t have it?”

He shrugs. “It was just you.”

The world narrows to a singular point of absolute terror. She can't breathe. She can't see. The slate the slate the slate the slate. She imagines it washed into the ocean, sinking to the bottom, washed out to sea. The slate the slate the slate. There's a high-pitched sound in her head. The terror is hot on her face, in her chest, she's going to die, she might as well die.

There's mumbling and shuffling and hands on her face. The slate the slate the slate. She's lost it. What will they do now that she's lost it? In all the months Link had it, he didn't lose it! But she did. Link! She can't even get to Link! Someone's hunting her and she doesn't know who and Paya might be dead and Link won't even know for days and she's lost the sl—

Ice water crashes over her head, and she gasps and splutters and gasps, opening her eyes and blinking through the water to see the captain with eyes wide as platters and the two other crewmembers standing over her. The woman is holding the water pitcher.

"My comforter!" the captain shrieks.

"It's just water," the woman shouts back. "And look, it worked."

Zelda wipes some water from her eye. Her hands are trembling. No. Her whole body is trembling. She's still having trouble breathing.

"Sea madness," the other crew member announces. He has his arms folded across his chest and his face is grim instead of terrified. "I've seen it before."

"It's not _sea madness,_ " the woman says, rolling her eyes and lowering the pitcher to plant her hands on her hips. "She woke up in a strange place and panicked. She's better now, see?"

They all turn to her.

"My lady," the captain says, his voice trembling slightly. "Are you quite alright?"

"Yes, I'm fine," she should say.

"Where is the next settlement?" she should ask.

Instead, her lower lip shakes violently, and her eyes well with more water. She folds over herself and claws her hands through her hair. With a keening wail, she starts to sob.

#

The ship docks that evening in Malin Bay, making use of an old monster dock that Link cleared out and reclaimed for Hyrule months ago. It doesn’t bring any joy through her fog of sadness, but she notes that it's good to see that people are using it. 

It's now the closest port to Tarrey Town.

Tarrey Town is not ideal, but she can work with it, she supposes. 

Eventually, she was able to explain to the captain that she was fleeing an attack when she ended up at the shrine, but she didn't know who attacked her. They weren't dressed like Yiga, although they moved in similar ways and had similar tactics. That makes her think it was a new faction of Sheikah, which means she didn't know who to trust.

Her first thought is to go to Robbie, but...loathe as she is to admit it, the only Sheikah she unequivocally trusts right now are Paya, Purah, and Symin.

After the captain throws himself into the daring adventure of keeping her secret and safe from fiends, and then takes the stealth mission of delivering a secret message to Tarrey Town upon himself. He keeps referring to himself as a hero and implying that he’s done far more than she could ever understand, and she really doesn’t have the energy to tell him to stop. She’d rather cry some more. She writes a letter to Rhondson, who probably won't be able to do much, but she’ll at least be able to get a letter to Vah Medoh when the Divine Beast is next in town. Amali could pick her up somewhere, or at least get a letter to Link.

The captain tucks her letter into his vest, close to his heart, then drapes a dark cloak over her shoulders. He fastens a clasp at her throat and tucks back a few strands of her hair before pulling the hood over her head. He blows out two of the three lanterns and instructs her (dramatically) to stay hidden. He kisses the back of her hand before he exits with a flare of his own cloak.

Zelda plops down onto the bed and curls once more into the fetal position to wallow as the crew unloads.

She’ll never be able to face Purah again. 

After all the grief she gave Link about how it was _her_ slate.

She can hear excited talk from outside and the scrapes and thumps of barrels and crates. A distant, quiet part of her wonders what kinds of shipments they've brought, or if these are all more guardian parts.

It's several hours, during which Zelda manages to doze, before there's a knock on the door. She sits up as Rhondson and the captain come in. Rhondson sweeps over, pulls her to her unsteady feet, and gives her a once over before crushing her into a hug.

"I need to send letters," Zelda says. "Someone needs to check on Paya, and I need to tell Link—"

"You need to rest. Sit down."

Zelda sits.

"Alright," Rhondson says, and Zelda's so tired that she relaxes into the commanding tone of her voice. "So someone, and we don't know who, is after _Your Majesty_."

The captain's eyes widen. "What?"

Zelda groans, "Could you not?"

"Don't interrupt," Rhondson snaps. "We need to get you to Link but going to Castle Town is a bad idea when we don't know what's going on."

"I was thinking I could travel to Gerudo Town or Rito Village and meet him there."

"And _I_ was thinking that you should go to the Great Plateau."

Zelda startles. "Why?"

She counts the points off on her fingers. "There are no monsters, no settlements, and it's nearly impossible to reach."

"If it's impossible to reach, then I can't reach it. I can't warp anymore!"

"Then put on your big girl pants and build yourself an elevator." She turns on the captain. "Can you get her as close to the Great Plateau as possible?"

He nods, still in shock. "Laverra Beach is a short walk to the road, and then only a day's walk to the Bridge of Hylia."

"Excellent. I'll put together a group to escort you."

"Who?" Zelda asks.

"I don't know. Most of the team is in Castle Town, and I'm sure as hell not walking that far. I’m grumpy pregnant."

"My crew and I volunteer, of course!" the captain says. "We can dock the boat in Cora Lake."

Zelda tries to think of a way to let him down easy, but she's still a bit sluggish and Rhondson beats her to it with "Great! I know a guy who’s good with a sword. He'll be perfect protection.”

“Well,” the captain chuckles, “I don’t know if we’ll need more help in that regard.”

Rhondson ignores him. “You'll be ready to leave tomorrow morning?"

"That was the plan."

"I'll send him before then. And I'll send word to Link. Vah Medoh just left, so she won't be back until next week, but I can send a messenger to Castle Town and Dueling Peaks, telling them not to expect you."

"We can stop briefly in Hateno, and I can check on your bodyguard."

Zelda sags in relief, even though she's not sure stopping in Hateno is the safest idea. She needs to know Paya is okay.

"Alright, princess. Good luck!"

Zelda staggers up for another hug and a “don’t call me that,” and then Rhondson stomps out of the room with the same level of drama with which she stomped in.

Zelda heaves a deep breath. It's going to be okay. A giant waste of time and resources, and she's going to miss the road construction, but...it's going to be okay.

She realizes that the captain is looking at her.

"I’m sorry for all the trouble I’m causing you.”

"You’re a princess?" he asks.

She moans and buries her face in her hands.

#

The whole crew is up before the sun the next morning. Loone, the female crew member, gets Zelda a different, more "seaworthy" outfit. It has a leather vest and a white undershirt that's plain except for its puffy sleeves. Zelda braids her hair tight to the back of her head, then covers her blondness entirely with a long purple scarf that belongs to the captain. There's silver embroidery on the edges. She feels rather pirate-like.

If she's going to be traveling with them, she'd rather be useful and rather not hide in the captain's cabin the whole time. Loone and Hash (the crewman who thinks she has sea maddness and also thinks that's perfectly normal) show her how to help with the running rigging, pointing at ropes and shouting terminology that she frantically and excitedly memorizes. 

Hash cuts himself off while explaining the halyards, his head whipping to the shoreline where Rhondson and a man are heading towards the ship. Zelda slips back a bit, and the captain plants a foot on the railing to grin down at them. 

"I got you some security," Rhondson calls.

"You trust him?"

"Sure. He's a sweet family man, who's always helping out around town more than he needs to, and he knows how to use a sword. What more do you need?"

"Discretion."

"That's why I picked him!"

"I think you picked him because you were low on options."

"Meh. Even if all those losers from Bolson Construction were here, I'd still tell you take him."

The captain looks back over his shoulder and shrugs at Zelda. She shrugs back. 

"Alright. Permission to come aboard!"

There's some soft speaking on the beach, then the thunks of boots coming up the gang plank. He's a broad-shuldered man with short red hair, a large rucksack over his shoulder, and a sword on his back. His face falls when he sees Zelda.

Her eyes widen in fear.

He swallows hard, straightens his spine, and marches up to her, extending a hand to shake. "Nate," he says.

"Zelda," she says, her voice thin as all her effort goes into not letting her hand tremble in his.

He bows his head to her and quietly swears, "You have my sword. I will protect you with my life."

She nods shakily.

The captain claps his hands together with a broad smile. "Raise the gangplank! Let's set sail!"

Rhondson waves from the beach, and Zelda raises a numb hand to wave back.

Out of all the people she could have picked to be Zelda's bodyguard, she picked Dorian.


	15. After the Third Meeting

Zelda volunteers for every job that involves climbing the masts, chores which Hash and Loone gladly relinquish. Partially, she's putting distance between herself and Dorian. It seems as though maybe he has turned his life around, and he really means her no harm. There's aren't that many Yiga left, and Dorian probably wouldn't know how to contact those who remained, and he would have nothing to gain by handing her over. But she's still wary. And it seems like he wants to speak to her, and she's just not terribly interested in having a deep conversation right now.

But the other part is that when she's up in the rigging, focusing on her balance and her knots, with the cutting wind on her face and the sun in her hair, she has less chance to think of the loss of the slate. It's as if a hole has been ripped from her stomach. A part of her is missing.

The ladders into the rigging are made of rope. Until the mainyard, it's easy: straight up with wood dowels to make the ladder's rungs. But then to get over the platform of the main top, the ladder bends out, over her head, at a sharp angle she's never climbed before. After that, the rope ladders forego their wooden dowels and climb higher, and there's a lot of horizontal climbing along the yards, sidling with her feet on one rope and her gripping another. There's a lot of balancing on the yard while holding the lines over her head. It's thrilling. From so high, the ocean stretches out before her.

Eventually the captain sends her up to the crow's nest with a telescope and tells her to keep watch. 

As they pass the shrine where they found her, she strains into the telescope for any sight of the slate on the warp point. She strains to see if it is just off the pedestal, only slightly under the water. She sees nothing, but maybe as they pass it, and she gets a better angle...

The shrine grows smaller and smaller into the distance behind them.

"Trim the topsail!" the captain shouts, and Zelda tucks away her telescope and swings down to the topgallant yard. They're past Davdi Island and the wind has picked up.

They have to stop at Hateno Beach to unload some things. They shouldn't have cargo aboard if they're going to leave the boat for a while, and the captain insists that the need to keep up their arrival schedule so no one gets suspicious. 

"Fear not, fair lady. You will remain well hidden here in the hold. The crew and I excel at subterfuge. No one will suspect a thing." 

Most likely, no one would notice if the crew was acting strange. They might not even believe him if he told his story about rescuing a long lost princess from the ocean.

The captain kisses the back of her hand ardently, then hurries up the steep stairs to the deck.

Zelda sighs. At least when she's hiding in the hold instead of in the captain's cabin, she can be useful helping to move the crates around. She throws herself into shifting the barrels closer to the stairs. When Hesh comes down, he surveys her work, then nods in approval and hefts the first barrel onto his shoulder. She finds that it's a bit easier to move the barrels if she can kind of walk them, tipping them back and forth and forward. 

But she can't do that with the crates, which she has to shove, scraping across the floor. She has to plant a foot against the bulkhead and her back against the crate to get them to start moving. Dorian comes down stairs as she's doing this, and he hurries to help her. It moves much more easily with his assistance, and she feels a bit foolish.

When it's in place, he looks down at her. It's the first time they've been alone since he came aboard. This is the closest they've stood to each other.

For a moment, they say nothing.

"I might go check your house," he says in a low voice. "See if your attackers left any clues."

"You have to find Paya," she says. It comes out too fast, too desperate, but she can't help it. "She might be hurt. She might need help. She might be--" She cuts herself off. Angry, helpless tears well up in her eyes, and she looks away.

He gives her a moment. Then he asks, "Is there anything I should get for you while I'm there?"

"You shouldn't collect too much. Not enough to be obvious that I came back for anything."

"Obviously," he says, sounding almost offended.

"I was--I was writing in a notebook. During the attack. It was on the table but--it might have fallen. It's green."

He nods, hesitates a moment. "Stay down here, alright? Leave a trail to follow if you get kidnapped."

That startles a laugh from her. And then he's off. 

She helps lift barrels into Hesh and Loone's arms, and she doesn't think about how Dorian might find Paya's body in the middle of a mess of broken furniture and scattered paper. She doesn't think about the way her eyes might be open and glassy, the way blood would have soaked into the floor. In the image, flakes of malice rise up into the air around her. She shifts the crates slightly closer to the stairs, taking up the space he barrels once occupied, and doesn't think of how her attackers could still be in the house, waiting, watching, how Dorian's entry might give away that she's here. They'll kill him and then come for her. She helps heave the crates off the ground, Loone on one side and Hesh on the other, and then has to step back as they ease up the narrow stairs, and she looks up at the ceiling and wonders about installing a kind of trap door that can be lowered into the hold for easier loading. How could she keep out the rain? Could she add a short ramp on the floor or have the ramp be part of the lowering platform? Where would she set the crank? 

There are people outside to greet the ship. She can hear their happy chatter through the hull. How many of them are assassins?

She nearly vibrates out of her skin.

Dorain is gone for two hours. She nearly bursts into tears when he arrives alone, which is ridiculous, because very specific circumstances would have to arise for Paya to return with him.

In a lowered voice, he reports, "Her trail lead all the way up to the tech lab. She was moving quickly, so she couldn't have been hurt badly. I assume she thought you would warp there. But you didn't, so she headed back into town. I talked to a man about renting a horse, and he said a Sheikah girl took his last one." He offers her a small smile. She nearly sags in relief, and takes her first full breath since she woke up on the ship.

Dorian reaches into his satchel and hands her a green notebook, a pen slipped into the spine. She clutches it to her chest.

"I found something else too." His smile grows and his eyes dance. And then he hands her the Sheikah slate. 

Her heart snags in her throat.

But how did she warp without...

No.

This is not her slate. 

Not the functional one that she carried for years and Link took on his adventures.

"It's my prototype," she says as she takes it. "I haven't programmed it yet."

His face falls. Her chest is empty. She slaps on the best smile she can, which is most likely not convincing at all. "But it is comforting to see it again. Thank you." She holds the dead slate tighter.

Loone leans in to peek at what she has, and Zelda holds it up to show her, a bit abashed that there's not much to see.

"I met a boy who had a device like that," she says. "It took pictures."

"That's Link!" Zelda says. By now it's no surprise at all to meet people who have met Link, but she's so very far away from him right now that it warms her to hear about him. It's as if they still have a connection.

"It was after meeting him that I joined the guardian salvage team. I had to see _more_. I wanted to take care of all of them."

"Really? Most people are afraid of guardians."

Loone nods. Her eyes are a bit too wide. Her smile just a hair too far on the side of manic. "They're terrifying."

Zelda pushes any discomfort aside. "I've been studying them for quite some time. Their programming is so complex and robust. Reverse engineering them could lead to a whole new era of technological development."

Loone stares at her. She bites her lower lip. Then she says, "Hesh and Captain Nell say I need to be less creepy, but would you like to meet Charles?"

That is not at all a good pitch. 

Zelda's mind flashes with images of a tied up and gagged a man kept under Loone's bed. Beside her, Dorian shifts his weight, the better to reach his sword.

But there's no way this is as creepy as it sounds. Loone probably has a hamster and is awkward at social interactions. Zelda smiles in interest and says, "I'd love to."

Loone hurriedly leads her deeper into the ship, and ushers Zelda into her quarters, where she hesitates just a second, then pulls back a sheet to reveal a disabled skywatcher. 

"This is _Charles_ ," Loone says. She lets the name roll from her tongue and blushes with pride. "Look, Charels, I've brought a new friend so see you, yes I have. She loves guardians too, but not as much as I love you. We should be polite to her, the way the captain is always saying we should." Loone looks up at her expectantly.

"Oh!" Zelda takes a few steps forward to give it a better look. "Um...He's in excellent condition. Where did you find him?"

"The Lomai Labyrinth. That's where he used to live. But he much prefers it now that he lives here with me."

"Certainly. It must have been quite dull to be stuck in that labyrinth for a century. Now he can see the world."

Loone's shoulders relax, a thick smile blooming across her face. "Exactly!"

From the doorway, Dorian makes a face. His body is still tense, as he now thinks Loone is liable to do something drastic and dangerous.

Hesh sticks his head in and groans. "Thought you were going to keep that to yourself."

"She doesn't mind."

Zelda gives him a reassuring smile. "I'm also quite interested in ancient technology."

He narrows his eyes at her. " _How_ interested?" 

"Their technology could provide a critical roll in rebuilding Hyrule."

He does not look convinced that Zelda won't start speaking about the sky watcher as if it were a person, but he does look convinced that she won't grab one of its propellers and stab him. 

Dorian looks convinced of nothing.

"We're about to set sail," Hesh says, then slaps the door frame and heads back to the deck. Zelda helps Loone cover Charles again, and waits around in the hold while the gang plank is raised and the boat is untied, while the sails are unfurled and the ship begins to move. After about fifteen minutes, she pops her head up and decides they're far enough from shore for her to help with the sails. There are still some people on the shore in the distance, and she squints to see if she can recognize anyone. High above them sits the tech lab, and she looks up at it, wondering when she'll see Purah and Symin again, wondering if they're worried for her, wondering how angry they'll be when they learn that she lost the slate.

#

"There I was," the captain says as Hesh serves everyone seconds of the the night's curry dish, "face to face with the serpent. It was covered in malice like bright pink tar, the corruption splattered over its face and down its whole length. That's when a heard the voice of the Goddess, like ringing bells and a golden echo, and she said to me, 'Nell! My hero! You must save this poor, noble, ancient creature from the evil that eats away at its magic!'"

It's better if Zelda appreciates his storytelling abilities and completely ignores everything else. She gives him her polite attention while praising Hesh for his excellent cooking. Loone and Hesh pay the captain only polite attention as well. She suspects that they've heard this story before, but she can't tell if they believe his tall tales or not.

Dorian is frowning, his fork stilled half way to his mouth.

"The beast uncurled from around the mountain top and took off into the air. It was a merry chase down the mountain as I sent arrow after arrow into the evil. When the last bit of malice burst off the beast, it shone the bright blue of the Goddess Nayru. A beauty rivaled only by present company." He winks at Zelda. She keeps her face polite. "'Nell,' the dragon said, 'you have my eternal gratitude. Should you ever be in need, simply call on me, and I will appear in all my frozen glory to assist you.'"

"I thought Link did that."

Everyone stills. Zelda's eyes bore into Dorian, hoping he'll take that hint and drop it. They are in a ship on the ocean a mile from shore, and they cannot afford to offend the captain.

But the captain laughs and lifts a glass in a toast. "No, good sir. I assure you. That feat of bravery was accomplished by none other than me."

Dorian narrows his eyes, taking in the captain from his blond hair to his scavenged outfit to the winged hilt of the sword on his back that he's yet to remove even though they're at sea and at the diner table. Dorian turns slowly to Zelda, who takes a delicate bite of her rice in response. He frowns at her, then takes a deep breath to respond.

Before he can say anything, Zelda says, "It's a thrilling story, captain. We are exceptionally lucky that so many people have been working so tirelessly to rid the country of evil."

His smile sparkles. "Especially when so much evil occupied our land, and so much has been swept aside in the last few years."

"Indeed."

He tries to sound casual, but there's something probing in the question. "You must have thrilling stories of your own. Did you by chance happen to see the final battle against the king of monsters that haunted the castle?" 

Fear prickles at her skin. Did she see its burning yellow eyes? Did she see the way it pulsed in its chrysalis? Did she see its matted hair and the way its spider legs scrambled against the floor, stabbing into the stone? 

It's hard to keep her words precise. "Yes. I saw it."

He nods. "It was enormous. Easily seen from the hills off to the east." She's not sure if he's digging to see if she had a part in the battle or if he's trying to see how much he can lay claim to the victory. Her head is spinning. 

"It was enormous," she agrees.

"Did you perchance--"

She pushes up from the able. "It's such a pleasant night. I think I'll sleep in the crow's nest."

It's actually quite nippy on deck, and she snags a blanket from the hold before climbing up into the rigging. She sits in the tub of the crow's nest with the blanket wrapped around her shoulders, twisting it closed against her chest. The wind whips at her face as she stares at the shore in the distance. She was going to miss the road construction. They could certainly do it without her, and she hoped that they would, but the thought of not being there broke her heart. She was supposed to help install irrigation pipes in Hateno days ago. She hoped that her complete failure to appear wouldn't turn the town against her right when she was making progress. What bad timing. She was going to spend a few days working on her slate, but now...

Now she is headed to the Great Plateau with nothing but her blank slate, her notes, and time. 

She pulls the slate from her stores and gazes at its dark screen with a crease between her eyebrows. In the light of the moon, she can see a dim reflection of her face. She squeezes the device, letting the stone grip into the palms of her hands. It's familiar.

She tucks it into the empty holder at her hip and wraps the blanket tighter about her shoulders.

#

They anchor the ship at Cora Lake and from there it's a short walk to the Bridge of Hylia. Loone is sad to leave Charles, but the captain comforts her by pointing out that "someone has to watch the ship."

The bridge still looks grand from the top, although it no longer has merchant stalls circling the central fountain, which no longer has water in it. The colorful banners and garlands are gone, and the bridge houses are in significant decline. But it's before they step onto the bridge, when she sees it from the side, that the truly horrendous state of the bridge is made clear. Whole piers are missing. It's as if stalactites hang down between arches, and it makes her question how on earth the bridge is still standing when it lacks the upward force to hold the keystones in place.

She's absolutely furious that Link has crossed back and forth over it.

The rest of the party is completely unconcerned, and steps onto the bridge without a second thought. The last time she had to cross a crumbling bridge, Link was there to distract her. Now she just clenches her jaw and walks quickly, her whole body alert for the sound of crumbling stone.

They set up camp in the Gatepost Town Ruins, pitching small tents on the leeward side of crumbled walls, and it's almost as if the buildings have found a second life. She remembers some of them. Most were designed as places to supply pilgrims: a flower store that sold garlands, a place to purchase fresh fruit as an offering, a store that sold souvenirs. She sets up in what was once a tavern, the last chance for alcohol on the way in and a first stop for fasting pilgrims on their way out.

The sun sets quickly, and they gather around the fire to have dinner and stare up at the black, looming face of the plateau. It seems much taller in the dark.

"How are we going to get up there?" Loone asks. Her neck is craned to an absurd angle.

"We're going to climb," Zelda says. "We have thirty-foot rope ladders. I can climb first, reach a terrace, and lower the ladders down."

"I can climb first," Dorian says.

"We'll take turns."

"It can't be more difficult than climbing the many towers scattered across Hyrule," the captain says.

She thinks it could. But instead of pointing that out, she asks, "Which was the most difficult tower you've climbed?" And he launches into a story about the tower at the citadel, which was swarming with guardians.

Zelda tries to pick out the landings they can use on the way up the cliff, but it's dark and such landings might not exist.

One by one the group breaks up, wanting to rest up for the difficult climb ahead. Zelda slips into her tent and curls up atop one blanket and under another, using the pack she's carrying as a pillow. She's a bit relieved that from her spot, the only person she can see is Hesh, who is by far the most normal of the lot of them. In fact, it makes her wonder why he would attach himself to Captain Nell, who is pretending to be Link, and Loone, who has an unhealthy attachment to the guardians. 

She can see him settle in his tent. He sits cross-legged as if he's about to meditate, then pulls a small vial from his pack. It glows blue in the night, as if it's full of fireflies. Or data ink. He tilts back his head and lets a single drop fall onto his tongue. He swallows and shudders, and Zelda doesn't dare to breathe.

When his eyes open, they glow a faint blue in the dark. Blue runes seem to trickle down his cheeks, down his arms, but they're faint and perhaps the work of shadows and imagination. He sits there, staring off to the southwest, unmoving for twenty minutes before the glow fades completely and he collapses onto his blankets.

Zelda does not sleep.


	16. After the Third Meeting

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Gets spicy.

The climb is difficult. She tries to keep track of how high they travel up the cliffside by noting how much of the ladders they use, but by the fourth leg, she's already lost track. Her saving grace is that the bricks are crumbling and she can slam a crow bar into the mortar to create a handhold. 

There are narrow ledges where the bricks stick out about two feet. They can't all stand on one at once, so their ascent is staggered until they use all four rope ladders and need to pass the last one up to the front. Dorian sticks close to her as she pushes onward, forging a way up. At one point, the two of them end up on a narrow ledge, a good fifteen feet about the rest. Dorian puts a hand on her shoulder to stop her from beginning the next climb. She thinks he's going to make her rest a moment, as she's obviously out of breath and her hairline is damp with sweat, but she can keep climbing and is unnecessarily offended he would suggest otherwise. Before she can say anything, Dorian looks down to make sure the others can't see him, then teleports up to the next ledge. He drops a ladder down to her.

Once they climb past the top of the first arches, which she would estimate to be about 2/3rds of the way up, there's a wide ledge, where they can all catch up. They reach it in the mid afternoon and plop down exhausted to have a rest and lunch. Zelda's eyes keep drifting to the last 75 feet of the climb.

When they reach the top of the plateau, they're all sore and tired. Loone is a bit grouchy and is vocal about how she misses Charles, which makes Dorian grouchy as well. The captain is still smiling and talking about what an adventure it is, and how it was a much easier climb the last time he attempted it, but his smile is at half mast and his steps are slow. His continued enthusiasm—or perhaps his stretching of the truth—makes Dorian even more grumpy. 

Zelda is simply glad to have solid ground under her feet and the wind in her hair. She's glad to be safe from all dangers save those she brought with her, which eats at her more with each passing hour.

They set up camp in the Temple of Time, as it's the most solid structure around and has both a (partial) roof and walls. Perhaps if their stay stretches, she can work on returning the Eastern Abbey to functionality. There are several walls, and the area is divided into rooms. They could have some privacy. She would very much like some privacy. Surely they can scavenge some of the abandoned barricades and use them as simple roofs. Tomorrow she might go sketch and measure and plan.

But for tonight she helps set up everyone's tents and helps prepare dinner. She feels acute guilt that they made such a long climb in order to keep her safe, and wants to make up for it and show her appreciation. Maybe a part of her is also a bit afraid to not be on everyone's good side. She sets up everyone's tents under the remaining roof, so they can stay dry should it rain, and then claims her own spot on the far side, hiding behind the hem of the Goddess's robe. Dorian gives her a meaningful look but says nothing. She turns away from him as if she didn’t notice.

In the morning, Loone is exceptionally interested in a couple of the guardians outside. Enough so that Zelda doesn't feel guilty at all about convincing her to help dig it out, lever it up, and roll it into the Temple of Time through a broken window. Now Loone can enjoy its company in the shade. She does feel slightly guilty when the captain rushes up to help them and then even more ashamed of herself when Dorian braces the other side. Hesh's involvement makes her question his motives, but then she remembers that her own motives are suspect. Loone names the guardian "Bruce," and takes a seat next to him, leaning back on one arm and smiling at the guardian coquettishly. 

Zelda decides to go for a walk. 

Dorian follows after her at a short distance, but as soon as she's outside the temple, the captain catches up with her and falls in step at her side.

"It's an absolutely beautiful day," he says.

"Yes. It's quite lovely. Temperate for this time of year."

"Yes, the last time I was here, it was exceptionally cold. But I faced the weather to disable several of the guardians. That one, for instance." He points at a guardian carcass as they pass.

"How interesting," she says, but she's looking past the guardian to the wooden watchtower beyond. She walks up to it distractedly and shoves at a support beam to find it remarkably sturdy. She pulls out her notebook and counts how many footsteps wide it is.

"Thinking of climbing it?" the captain asks. He's snuck up close, and leans in so his chin practically rests on her shoulder. Dorian has come closer as well, his eyes narrowed.

"Honestly, I'm thinking of moving it,” she says. “But I'm not sure how I would accomplish such a task. Taking it apart and rebuilding it seems the most prudent idea, but I worry that I won't be able to reassemble it as well with the resources I have. Look at the knots in the rope. That's rather sophisticated." She sketches the knot, then hurriedly climbs the ladder, lying on her belly and leaning off the edge to get a good look and sketching more.

She ignores the men as they mumble to each other, possibly discussing how strange she is. That would be alright as everyone is strange here. She's fitting in.

The captain steps out from under the tower enough so he can tip his head back and look up at her. "So. _Why_ do you want to move it?"

"I want to set it up in the temple and use it to raise the guardian we brought in off the floor."

"Ah." He nods to himself. "And, why is that?"

"Because I think I can reprogram it, and to do that I need it held upside-down."

She hopes that's the end of it, but after a long moment, he asks, "You can do that?"

"Maybe." She tucks away her journal and frowns down at him. "I have nothing but time to make the attempt." She bites her lip and looks out towards the castle. She imagines she can see Castle Town in the distance. 

"My crew would be interested in that."

Her attention snaps back to him.

He flashes a smile. "Would you like some assistance moving your tower?"

She narrows her eyes at him. "In exchange for what?"

"In exchange for your lovely companionship. As you said, we've nothing but time here. Might as well be of assistance to Her Majesty."

She doesn't buy it. His use of titles makes her think he expects her to have undue influence. She’s wealthy, yes, but she would like an agreement on payment for his and his crew’s services rather than feeling guilted and beholden in the future.

He cuts off her thoughts. "But I can tell that you prefer a more pragmatic reason. It stands to reason that if we know what the guardians are used for and what can be done with them, that gives us more leverage when negotiating payment for our salvage operations."

She tilts her head. Yes, that does make more sense.

"And, begging your pardon, but I don't believe you can move this tower on your own."

That may be true.

"Ah! Now I've piqued your interest."

"Indeed," she says. She climbs back down the tower and holds out her hand to shake on it. "You will assist me in my research here, and then you can attempt to drive up the price of your salvaged guardians at a later date."

He takes her hand and flashes another smile. "Attempt? Dear lady, I will succeed." 

He turns her hand to kiss the back of it.

"How should we go about moving the tower?" Dorian asks, giving her an excuse to pull away.

The legs are buried in the ground for support. After some investigative digging, she realizes it will be easier to cut the legs than to dig them all up and attempt to lift the tower out of the holes. With all the abandoned weapons strewn about, it's easy to find an axe and they set about chopping the legs while bracing the rest of the tower. They let it stand unmored, and Zelda spends a sleepless night cobbling broken guardian parts into sets of wheels. They are not the best, but the crew teams up the next day to lift each leg of the tower three inches off the ground to slip the wheels underneath. With the uneven, rocky ground, it's a challenge to roll the tower all the way to the temple, but she's sure that it's easier than if they had attempted to lift and carry it. They have to tip it to get it in through the door, and they nearly drop it twice. They get it set up at the front, next to the guardian. By torchlight, she brainstorms how to brace it.

Loone doesn't like the idea of turning Bruce upside down and taking him apart, so they bring in a different guardian, which Loone names "Lucy." Zelda sets to work prying off the bottom and gutting it. She's more careful than usual, wanting to preserve as many of the hooks inside the guardian as possible. Hesh is surprisingly helpful in this. As if he's done it before, which he definitely has. She won't mention it. They roll up the tubing and unscrew the legs, which leaves a set of helpful holes that she can probably use when lifting and securing the guardian to the tower. The crew didn't know you could unscrew the legs. They've been hacking them off.

She climbs inside and pries and twists off the guardian's crown, leaving her with a hollow cone. Then she wedges her crow bar in again and pries and heaves along a rarely used seam to take off the remaining circle of the bottom and leave it completely open. She designs a kind of harness to hold the guardian in place upside down, then she designs a crank system to lift it, which takes forever to cobble together out of salvaged wood and savaged guardian parts. She knows how to make rope from her time in Rito Village working on Vah Rudania's harness (although she's not exceptionally good at it), and she teaches Hesh and Loone to help her. Hesh says it could be a useful skill aboard ship.

She tries to clean out the tubes down at one of the ponds, but she doesn't have any of her brushes or syringes and she has no idea what to do but get water inside and kind of shake it around a bit in hopes the dried data gunk will loosen up. Hesh watches her from the shore, standing next to her abandoned boots and Dorian (who is bored to death and refuses to help her clean tubing). She tries to ignore them both. It makes her anxious to have Hesh’s attention so tightly focused on the blue data liquid, even if it is dried up and unusable. But then he takes up one of the tubes from the shore, dips it in the water and swirls it around just to get the insides wet, then pulls a vial from the inside of his vest and eye-droppers a few hefty globs into the tube. Whatever the substance is, it glows a fluorescent yellow. It reminds her of electric chuchus. Probably made from their jelly. It's viscous enough. A blob of the yellow goop rolls down the tube that he holds upright in his hand, absently watching its progress as it travels lower and lower. He adjusts his grip, keeping the jelly where he can see. 

Zelda has stopped her fruitless efforts and stares at him in open confusion. He gestures her forward with a hand, and she finds herself approaching him, almost as if the jelly is calling to her. She wants a closer look. 

He holds out his vial. "Two drops does the trick." She's surprised he’s letting her hold it, but, in a way, it soothes her trepidation. He wouldn't let her handle something he wouldn't be okay with giving up. 

She can't help but squint at the liquid when she pulls out the dropper, she can't help but get a better look, to get a small whiff of its smell.

"Chuchu jelly diluted with alcohol with a little bit of baking soda," he says.

"That's it?"

He shrugs, adjusting his grip as the jelly slides further down. The tubing above his hand indeed looks cleaner. The clean tube now bends back over his shoulder, and he deftly tucks the end hanging down his back through a loop on his belt that seems designed for the exact purpose of keeping the tubing out of the water.

She squeezes two drops into the tube, then hands the vial back to him. She can now hold the tube right in front of her nose and watch the jelly’s progress. It leaves behind a thin coating that vanishes within the length of her thumbprint. Up close, she can see that the barely-noticeable, gray sheen on the inside of the tubing has been eaten away, leaving the tubing crisp and clear. Flecks of dirt and rust now float in the liquid. Also...it seems to...fizzle? Spark? Maybe that's just the natural current in the chuchu jelly. She holds the tube right around the blob of jelly, and she can feel tiny pops in her hand.

But the real test is when it meets the first clog of dried data liquid. For a moment, the jelly pauses, its progress halted by the clog. But then there's a definite spark, large enough that she jumps. And then the jelly is definitely glowing brighter. And it's larger, and...where did the clog go? It doesn't float like a film of mold. It looks almost as though...

The jelly approaches another clog. A bigger one this time. The flash is brighter, more a series of flashes, and she watches as the clog disintegrates, as it fizzles back into a liquid.

She knows the data liquid has a slight charge, but she never knew it would behave like this, that it could, in part, be reconstituted. She snaps up the Hesh to see that he's a third of the way down his tube. His blob of liquid has grown much bigger than hers so it now takes up a stretch of tube nearly as long as the width of her hand.

It's much more blue than hers. 

"It's data ink!" she breathes.

He nods. "Not much. And it's loaded with impurities. You've gotta clean it up before it's usable."

"You—you collect data ink!"

She knew that. She must have known that. No, she assumed he'd purchased his supply from somewhere, but now that she's using her brain, she realizes that no one knows how to do this. Purah has reused her small supply for the last hundred years.

Too excited to let what he does with it once he has it stop her, she rushes another step forward and asks, "How do you remove the impurities?"

He smiles and jerks his head at her tubing. The jelly is getting a little too low in her hands, and it's approaching another clog. She watches as it pops and flashes, as a definite burst of glowing blue joins her yellow blob until they mix together enough to turn green. She grins at it.

He shows her how to tuck the clean, dangling end of the tube around her waist, and as their jellies reach the end of the tubing, he takes out a vial from inside his vest and deftly catches it. The vial has a skull and crossbones dawn on it, and now that they're standing closer, she can tell from the tell-tell tinkling that his vest is full of vials. Once he's gathered it all, he raises the vial in salute and tucks it away.

Zelda spends the evening determining that there are no electric chuchus on the plateau for her to make her own jelly, but Hesh doesn't seem to mind letting her use his. After all, he gets to keep the data ink.

Maybe she shouldn't be encouraging him.

The inside of the guardian is not only smaller than the inside of a guidance stone, but also the sensors are in a different configuration. She has to repair all the hooks to hold the tubing, which involves taking apart more guardians and gathering their hooks to replace those that are broken or rusted in her guardian. She has to check that all the sensors work, which is a painstaking process without the slate to interact with them. Four of them have to be replaced. She spends most nights by the campfire, redesigning her program so she can build the slate with what she has until she falls asleep over her notebook. She'll need to do the programming in four sets, which may be easier in the long run than trying to cram in all the programming tubes at once, but it also means that if she makes a mistake in the first round, she won't know until she's done everything, and then she'll have to redo it all again. She wishes she could file down the outside of the guardian shell so the runes can crawl down the sides when it’s activated, but she doesn't have any of the tools she would need to sand down the ancient material. It shouldn't make a difference, as Purah always said the runes are more of a side effect than a necessity. 

Her new guidance stone is as refurbished as it's going to get. Loone has scrubbed the outside of it until the black actually shines. The watch tower is latched to the wall, and they've added a platform halfway down the tower with a hole the same size as the opening of the guardian. If all goes well, she can lie on the platform and reach inside the guardian, which sounds much more pleasant than bending over into it and standing on a ladder at all times. 

On their seventh day on the Plateau, they heft the guardian into the air. She nearly cries for joy when they raise it up and lock it in place, and it fits perfectly. It looks like a poor man's facsimile of the guidance stone in Purah's lab, but that's what it is.

There are still some kinks to work out in her program (literal kinks where the tubing would have to be bent at too sharp an angle). So Zelda spends a day with her calculations while Loone finds enough materials to make a paint and paints the whole watch tower a blue that doesn't match the glow of the data ink.

Zelda forces herself to wait the next day and then until after breakfast before she begins her programming. The whole crew is intensely interested, and she realizes that the platform they've built has the added benefit of letting them all see what's going on inside the guardian. The captain wants to bring far too much tubing up. While she hooks up the start of the tubing, Loone and Hesh both hold onto the length that trails behind her, as if that is of great necessity. They finally find a method where Loone holds Zelda's notes and gives very specific directions, while Zelda is half inside the guardian arranging the tubing, and Hesh offers an extra pair of hands when she needs them (which is always), and the captain is handing over equipment like her tape measure and string. Dorian stands below, ready to catch Zelda should she somehow fall.

After the fist hour, the crew starts to flag and begins rotating out. Loone has decided that she needs something softer to sit on and sends the captain off to get her sleeping bag, which Zelda suspects will lead to Loone sleeping up here. Hesh heads down the ladder to grab some snacks, and Dorian has calmed down enough to step back enough to actually see them.

The sound of pounding feet against the temple floor has her pulling herself out of the guardian to see what on earth was in Loone's sleeping bag that would make the captain run.

And she sees Link. 

Storming into the temple with Paya and Cado in his wake while joy tightens her throat. 

The elation she feels at seeing him is doused by the fury on his face. Her excitement warps into trepidation when he throws himself at the captain, who barely manages to draw his sword in time to block Link's first attack. Link slashes again, and the captain jumps back and manages another block on the next slash. They lock together for a split second, Link a thunderstorm brought down upon the temple. Then he twists his wrist and the captain's blade goes flying. Link kicks him to the ground, and brings down his sword.

"Stop!"

The tip of the Master Sword freezes at the captain's throat, Link kneeling on his chest. Link doesn't break his burning glare down at the captain.

Before Zelda can say anything, Paya shouts, "You!" She vanishes and reappears to throw her elbow into Dorian's stomach and pin him to the wall with her sword at his throat.

"Stop it, all of you!" Zelda shouts, scrambling down the ladder. Loone has flattened herself against the decking, her arms covering her head. At the base of the tower, Cado has a pair of knives aimed at Hesh's gut and jugular, but Hesh has both arms up in surrender. "What are you doing?" Zelda demands.

"They attacked you," Link snarls.

"No. They rescued me when I warped into the middle of the ocean and passed out from the poison. I assumed that _Cado_ was the one who attacked me."

"What?!" Cado's spine pulls straight, and he whips his head around from his glare at Hesh to give her a betrayed look. "We may disagree on policy, but I would _never_ attack you! Whoever did this will face serious consequences."

She rolls her eyes, reaches out, and shoves his hands away from Hesh as she passes them on her way to Link. Cado steps back abashed, lowering his knives. Hesh rubs at his side.

"What about him?" Paya demands, pressing her sword tighter into Dorian's throat. 

"He didn't have anything to do with this. Didn't Rhondson tell you?"

She's at Link's side now, but he hasn't moved his eyes from his glare down at the captain. In a huff, she grabs Link's hands around the hilt of his sword and tries to pull it back, but he fights her, and she knows that her grip will slip first and the sword will jerk back into the captain's neck. When she pulls back in a huff, he lets go of the sword enough to pull a note from his pocket and hand it to her.

She gives him a bewildered look before reading.

_Link —_

_Zelda was attacked in Hateno. She's being taken to the Great Plateau. You should get there when you've got a minute._

_— Rhondson_

Zelda reads it three times. When she finds words, they come out as an unfortunate shriek. "They rescued me and were bringing me here to keep me safe! That was _her idea_! Why didn't she say that?! What was she thinking?! This is the worst letter I've ever seen! Goddess, she's horrible at taking notes! We've just been doing guardian research for the last week!"

Link relaxes enough to look up at her, but he's still furious.

"They're friends," she insists. "They're keeping me safe!"

"Not that safe," he growls.

"You can hardly hold a defeat at your hands against them."

His eyes narrow down at the captain, who tries to swallow and then thinks better of it.

Link abruptly rises to his feet and slides in front of her, herding her behind his back with one arm and stepping backwards towards the exit. When they're a good ways away, he spins on her, lifting a hand to her face and sweeping his gaze over her in assessment. His hand slips to her hip and pulls out the slate as his other arm pulls around her waist, ready to warp. 

His look of determination and rage only falters when the slate doesn't turn on.

He prods at it again with his thumb. "Is it—oh." He recognizes the differences between this slate and the one he knows so well. His confusion grows. 

Carefully, she takes it back from him, tucks it back into its holder. She can't look him in the eye. "Let's go for a walk," she says. "Paya! Let him go."

Paya steps backwards, glowering at Dorian. Zelda gives the crew a cringe over her shoulder as she drags Link from the temple by the hand. Link shoots a complicated hand gesture at Paya, who shifts as if she's suddenly ready to attack Cado should he make one wrong move. Cado throws his hands in the air and shouts, "It wasn't me!"

Two steps out of the temple she takes a sharp turn out of sight, and turns to Link, pulling him to her. He comes into her arms easily, his eyes searching hers, and the elation she felt at first seeing him returns, building in her chest.

"I wasn't there for you," he says.

"It's okay." She takes his face in her hands and tries to smooth his furrowed eyebrows.

"It's not okay," he growls.

He draws her in, kissing her desperately, and she feels as though she might fly apart at the sheer relief of it. He gathers her into his arms and holds her together. Under her shirt, his hand climbs up her spine, all the way to the base of her neck, bracing her so when the kiss deepens, she leans back, solid and supported in his arms. She stops him when he grabs her rear and lifts, drawing her closer. Her heart squeezes with anticipation, and she can't pull herself more than a breath away to say, "Not here. Somewhere—somewhere else."

He nods, but pulls her back in for another kiss. It's only slightly more chaste, but she can feel his breathing pick up again, and he has to tear himself away, pulling her by the hand into the sparse woods.

They arrive at a cabin so overgrown that moss grows on the roof. It's dark inside, but the second she steps through the threshold, she's in his arms again, his mouth sealed and pulsing over hers. Her shirt comes off, and his arms encircle her, cupping her shoulder, her hip, the whole length of his arms pressed to bare skin. He squeezes her so tight she might dissolve straight through his chest, and again she has the impression of being gathered. She drags her thigh up his leg, but her knee bashes against the quiver at his waist, and then it's a desperate scramble to dump all his equipment to the ground. She keeps her hands on his bare skin as he pulls off his shirts, and he wraps his arms around her as he tugs off his bracers and gloves behind her back, immediately reaching up to unclasp her chest binding and pull her in, skin against skin. 

He plops onto the edge of the bed with her in his lap, his lips at her throat. It makes her blood sing to be wanted, to be desired, to be cherished. For so much of her life she was disappointing and inadequate, and yet Link wants her. He twists so she's on her back and he's above her. 

They fumble out of their pants, and he hooks his fingers in her underthings and drags them down.

She gasps into his mouth, because she's naked now. She's never been completely naked with him. She usually keeps on her underthings or a shirt. He's seen all there is to see, but not all at once, and it's thrilling and embarrassing, and she kisses him more desperately while his hand moves down her body, his thumb digging circles into all the tender spots that make her gasp.

His tongue in her mouth is urgent, assertive, claiming, and she trembles and kisses him harder to keep up. But when his fingers finally press where she aches for attention, he's tender. Gentle. Slow. So frustratingly, deliciously slow. Her head spins with the juxtaposition of it. She squirms, pulling his hair, squeezing his rear, urging him to switch, to kiss her gently while his hand strokes her with the same fierce desire that sings through her bones, to move along with the pounding beat of her heart. 

She _needs_ him. She needs more. Faster and harder and stronger and just—she lets loose a broken moan. Any control she once had shivers and buckles, and maybe it's good that he's kissing her so hard because otherwise she would plead. She'd plead for him to please please please just—just—just what? That would be a terrible idea. 

Wouldn't it? 

No, it would be a very good idea. She wants him. He wants her.

It would be fine just this once. 

She shoves his briefs down his hips, takes hold of him, and, oh he feels so good in her hand, she just needs to—to—His arm braced over her head clenches, his hand fisting in both her hair and the blankets.

And her mind blanks on what to do next. Well, of course, she _knows_ , but the logistics of—

He thrusts up into her hand, and, oh, well, that will have to do. It is very nice though, and a warm wave rolls from her stomach to her shoulders, then out to her fingertips as his fingers finally move in tandem with his hips. And she can _imagine_ , and she's _wanted_ , and it's all she do to hold on, to keep kissing him and stroking him, her nails digging into his rear as stars spin overhead and light bursts behind her eyes.

When the world returns to her, he's out of breath and clutching at her, nuzzling into her neck. 

"I love you, I love you, I love you."

She presses breathless kisses to his head, stroking his hair to make up for pulling it so much. "I love you."

"I was so scared, Zel."

She hugs him tighter and tries not to cry.


	17. After the 3rd Meeting

In front of the temple, Zelda sits between Link's legs, her back to his chest, as she explains all the details of her new program. He's gathered her hair back over his shoulder, leaving her neck bare for him to nuzzle into it. She's not sure if he's listening to her or not, but it doesn't really matter.

She's interrupted by Paya, Cado, and Dorian, who stand in place before them as if ready to have a serious talk. She blinks up at them and refuses to even think about moving from her comfortable spot. Link tightens his arms around her waist and probably glares at them.

"We need to find out who at-attacked you," Paya says.

"Who attacked both of us," Zelda corrects.

"We're assuming it's a Sheikah faction," Dorian says. "There aren't enough Yiga left to try to pull something like this off."

"And they didn't-they didn't fight like Y-yiga," Paya says. "They were l-l-like Sheikah with no-no morals."

"Or Sheikah who thought they were working in service of the crown," Cado muses. When Paya shoots him a look, he corrects himself. "Not that I know for sure. Just a guess."

"How do you suggest we discover the identity of these attackers?" Zelda asks.

Paya sighs. "I-I-I think-I th-think--"

"We should go to Kakariko," Cado says.

"Let her finish," Zelda chides.

Paya flushes harder and mumbles, "We should go to Kakriko."

"It stands to reason," Dorina says, "that if they're Sheikah, then whoever attacked you is still in Kakariko or has recently left Kakariko."

Link nods. "It's a tight group. Someone there will at least know if something is off."

"And I think you should go, Zelda," Dorian says. "I think when we find these people, a direct address of their concerns could stop this in its tracks before things escalate."

"Escalate?" Link snaps. "They attacked her and drugged her and made her go into hiding."

" _ And _ ," Dorian says patiently, "they could do worse. Do you want a new Yiga clan? Tend to this now while they're still in a position to be negotiated with."

Cado shifts so he’s in better position to draw his sword. "You want us to use Her Highness as bait.”

"No," Dorian says. "But your plan is going to be to go to Kakariko and sniff around for two weeks. Then when you've found your perpetrators, you'll travel back here to collect Zelda, then travel back so she can have a discussion, and in that time while you're traveling, the Sheikah will deal with the problem in their own way. I'm saying, the plan should be for her to offer mercy and try to find a diplomatic solution. They've made a mistake, yes, but if they thought they were helping, we can bring them back to the light."

Zelda feels chilled. Link's arms tighten further. She hides it by teasing, "You just don't want to be here anymore."

"I don't trust these people," Dorian mutters. "But mostly I want to go home. I miss the girls."

It warms her heart to realize that by "home" Dorian means Tarrey Town.

Paya thinks on it a moment and nods slowly.

Zelda turns to Link for his opinion. His jaw is tight, but he nods. "I left a third of the army in the Gatepost Town Ruins. They'll come with us."

Zelda sighs. "I guess the slate programming will have to wait." Again.

#

She has to thank the crew and apologize for Link's behavior before they leave. Loone and Hesh don't really mind the Sheikah attack, but they're both confused by the fact that she's leaving. 

"What about reprogramming Lucy?" Loone demands. "We barely started!"

Zelda smiles and gives her a side hug that puts both Dorian and Link on edge. "I promise I'll be back. I've wanted to set up a lab here for quite a while, and we've made such progress, I can hardly abandon it."

"How soon will you be back?" Hesh asks.

"I can't say for certain. I need to settle things with the Sheikah, and if it's safe, I'll need to check in on where Vah Rudania is working on the road to Ft. Hateno. I'm hoping she'll be able to collect the guardians there."

Loone straightens. “It’s collecting the guardians on Blatchery Plain? What’s it doing with them? Do they know how to salvage them?”

Zelda laughs. "I assume they’ll bring the guardians here. It’s mostly to get them out of the way, but then they’ll be here for further study."

Loone’s eyes light, and Zelda laughs again.

"We should be moving on," the captain says. “Things to do.”

It's the first time he's spoken since she came back into the temple. She doesn't blame him, as he's certainly been dealt a severe blow to his ego today. Not only did Link beat him soundly, but it's now clear that she wasn't fooled by any of his lies about his identity. 

She would ask where his next adventure will take him, but that might be pouring salt in the wound. Instead, she says, "I do hope you'll bring me all the guardian parts you recover."

He grins at her, his teeth sparkling. "Dear lady, we'll see if you can afford our new prices." She's relieved that he doesn't seem to be too out of sorts, but it is the first time he doesn't attempt to kiss her hand.

"I'll make sure they get down the plateau safely," Dorian says. 

She hugs him as well, surprising even herself. Cado shakes Dorian's hand. They used to be best friends. Zelda wonders how much Cado knows. Paya only offers Dorian a curt nod.

Link's hand never leaves the small of her back. With a wave over his shoulder, he says, "See you around, Loone."

"Loone?" she asks once they're down the stairs and well on their way to the edge of the plateau.

He gives her a confused look. "That's her name."

"I know that's her name. She's the only one you said goodbye to."

"She's the only one I've met before."

"You haven't met Captain Nell?"

He thinks. "I don't think so?"

She shakes her head, trying to hold back a laugh. "Oh dear."

"Wait. Have I met him? Oh no. What did I do? Is he the normal sized horse guy?"

She can't hold back her laugh any more.

#

Link was not joking about how much of his army is waiting for them. They paraglide down into a crowd, all of whom lift their weapons into the air and cheer. Despite not caring in the slightest about her previous almost daily appearances, they now make a very big deal out of her presence. She's given a special horse, and she rides at the front of the column next to Link, who sits tall in his saddle and glares silently at everyone. He's done a great deal of glaring today, and it's hard to tell what's for show and what's actual irritation.

It's not a long ride to Riverside Stable, where they stop for the night. The troop sets up Link's tent. Then salute him and nod to her as he and Zelda enter, as if they didn’t spend weeks trying to hide that she was sleeping there because they were worried the troop wouldn’t respect him. It makes her wonder if they were as discreet as they thought. It makes her wonder how frighteningly driven Link’s been the last few days. 

However he's done it, he's earned the troop's respect and that respect now covers her too like an over-large cloak.

In his cot, he pulls her half on top of him, and she nearly cries from how much she missed that. Just having him hold her. Finding comfort in each other's closeness while sharing an uncomfortable space. She missed the way he smells like sweat and road dirt, and she missed the way his chest rises and falls under her cheek. It's been so long since she hasn't slept alone.

She doesn't think she could control herself if she made a move on him. She feels a twisting in her belly and a tingle across her skin just from lying next to him, and her face flushes as she squeezes her eyes shut and tries to push down the thought of how she could pull the collar of his shirt down just an inch or two and his collarbone would be right there for kissing.

Something is wrong with her. They've just been apart too long.

It's not a long ride to Kakariko the next day. It’s apparent that the Sheikah knew they were coming, because they're greeted by an escort, who lead them straight to Impa's house as if they might get lost on their way. 

Impa is waiting for them on the front steps, frowning down at the troop.

The first thing she says as Zelda, Link, Paya, and Cado head up the long stairs is an indignant "You brought an army into my village."

Link shrugs. "You wanted me to be general."

Impa huffs and gestures them inside.

Paya is instantly subservient again, her head bowed as she helps Impa onto her tower of cushions. Zelda and Link kneel before her, and Zelda's not sure why she's surprised when Paya and Cado remain standing. Looking at them all from below, she feels a bit like a child about to be scolded.

Zelda refuses to let that happen. She keeps her spine straight and takes the lead on the conversation. "I'm sure you've heard by now that someone attacked Paya and me in Hateno."

"Yes." Impa shoots a glare at Paya, who turns red. 

"Paya did her duty, and I was able to escape. But we have reason to believe that our attackers were disguised members of the Sheikah."

"That's a bold accusation."

"Perhaps, but it's the most logical. Their fighting style matched the Sheikah's, and they aimed to incapacitate me rather than hurt me."

Impa closes her eyes and takes a deep breath.

"There are growing fractures in the Sheikah tribe," Zelda says. "Those who are insistent on me being queen are offended that I won't claim the throne. Those who understand the current political landscape agree with me, but feel troubled and disloyal to disagree with you. And now it seems there are some who wish to take matters into their own hands."

Impa's eyes remain closed.

Zelda waits for Impa to scoff, for her to wave away Zelda’s analysis as exaggeration and paranoia. She prepares her next round of arguments, her next set of evidence.

Impa doesn’t argue.

Zelda’s face falls as realization hits her. "You know all this already.”

"Dear child," Impa says, and her voice is soft in a way it hasn't been in months. "I did have my reasons for pushing you so hard."

The words land like a hammer. Yet another loved one has been pulled away from allowing Zelda to live her life because they need to protect their people. The welfare of the larger community, as always, outweighs Zelda's desires.

But it's more than that this time. It's not simply that she doesn't want to be queen. It's not a personal decision at the expense of her country. Not this time. This time what will hold the Sheikah together--her being queen--will not be supported by the other races of Hyrule. It wouldn't be supported even by the Hylians. 

Zelda rubs her temple, but keeps her back straight and keeps control of the conversation despite the surprise. "I have some thoughts for what might help the situation."

"Are they that you become queen and allow us to protect you at all times? Because that is what my people want."

Zelda takes a deep breath. "Are the Sheikah sworn to the crown or to the blood of the Goddess?"

"They're one in the same."

"No longer."

Impa considers it. "You would let us guard you as the bearer of the blood of the Goddess?"

"That depends. Sometimes I want my protection to just be Link."

"And when the general is taken away by his other duties?"

"Then, yes. Paya may accompany me."

Impa shakes her head. "Paya's proven to not be suitable protection."

"Not suitable protection against other Sheikah perhaps. But I believe if you announce to your people that I've agreed to a Sheikah guard, then we will not find ourselves in a similar situation again."

"...Perhaps."

Paya hisses, and all eyes snap to her. From the look on her face, her hiss was one of realization. She crosses the room quickly and whispers in Cado's ear, and Cado immediately exits the building with Paya taking his spot. All their movements are absolutely silent.

Zelda stares at her for a moment, but when no explanation is forthcoming, she turns back to Impa, whose eyebrows are raised.

Zelda swallows. "I understand that the Sheikah think always of the long game. You're already planning for the next cycle of the Calamity's return. You will need to keep track of my bloodline. I have no problem with that."

Impa's shoulders loosen. "Good."

"I also understand that asking you to no longer protect the Royal Family may feel as though I'm stripping you of part of your identity, of the very foundation of your people. And I understand that a similar stripping of identity was done after the last Calamity. So I propose this: I would like to re-institute what was taken from you after the last Calamity. I would like to encourage you, both with my political power and with my moral and financial support, to continue researching the Sheikah technology and lead us into another golden age of technology in Hyrule."

Impa snorts and smirks at her. "That's what you want anyway."

"Then it must be divine intervention that our goals align so perfectly."

"Ha!" Impa slaps her knee.

"Would your people find this solution suitable?"

"I'm not sure, but it's--"

The door behind them opens, and Cado re-enters, followed by a Sheikah man. Zelda recognizes his face, but has trouble placing his name.

Paya teleports. She's there and then gone and then falling on the Sheikah man with a knife in each hand. Shocked, he dodges backwards and pulls out a scythe to block her next strike. And then they're moving, almost too fast to follow, intricate footwork moving them across the meeting room. Link grabs Zelda's arm to pull her behind him, and the Sheikah battle on. Impa is incensed, but Cado watches the battle with his hands planted on his hips, frowning as if judging their forms. 

Paya spins and elbows the man in the stomach, and then there are three of her, two of them glowing blue duplicates that mimic her every move. The man moves faster, trying to get out from between the three of them, but he can't keep up, can't keep up, can't keep up. He throws her off balance with a kick followed up by an elbow, and in that slim window of opportunity he slaps his hands together and pushes. A ball of air erupts from his palms, throwing Paya across the room, where she slams against the wall and then slams against the floor as he teleports onto her chest with his scythe at her throat.

Paya smirks.

"What on earth is this?!" Impa shouts.

"Of the Sheikah, only Cado and Dorian can beat me in hand-to-hand combat," Paya says. "But three people can beat me when we use magic: Cado, Dorian, and you."

The man's face falls a split second before Cado's sword comes up against his throat.

"Steen, I think you have some explaining to do."


	18. After the Third Meeting

Steen, the carrot farmer, gives up the identity of his accomplice immediately. It makes everyone suspicious, because it's so fast and because apparently he has a well known rivalry with his supposed partner in crime. Link suspects that Steen is trying to frame Olkin for something he didn't do, but when Cado brings the pumpkin farmer in, Olkin takes one look at everyone, his eyes widen, and he makes a break for it. Cado rolls his eyes and takes off after him, Paya tight on his heels. They bring Olkin back in a few minutes later, shoving him onto his knees beside Steen. Olkin gives him a dirty look, and Steen shrugs.

Zelda steps in front of them. Her hands clasped lightly before her, her face neutral. They have trouble looking up at her with Cado and Paya's hands on the back of their necks. Zelda gestures for them to let them sit up, but even when they're allowed to straighten their spines, they have trouble sitting up tall, trouble looking her in the eyes.

"I understand that the two of you attacked Paya and me."

They wince in unison.

"I wish to understand why. Have you joined forces with the Yiga?"

She knows they haven't, but she predicts that it's so far from their actual intention that they'll tell her the entirety of their plan.

And they do. 

"No! Your Majesty!" "We would never!"

She tilts her head in expectation, and they explain as if they're racing to tell the whole of the story before their accomplice can do so first.

"We just wanted to bring you somewhere safe, Your Majesty." "Away from all these bad influences." "Leading you astray." "We needed time to convince you." "Away from distractions." "Surely you'd see reason."

She nods slowly. "I would be a captive audience."

They nod enthusiastically, until her words sink in and their nods turn to denials. "No no no no no."

She lets them feel uncomfortable for a long moment. "I dearly hope we can come to an understanding." Her voice takes on an edge. "I'd hate to experience further violence from those whom I assumed to be my allies. I'm sure my true allies wouldn't stand for that, and I fear they'll take drastic steps should there be another incident."

She's well aware that Link and Cado are both standing behind her.

Steen and Olkin's faces pale.

But she smiles at them. Benevolent. Merciful. "I have always known the Sheikah to be unfailingly loyal as they protected the Blood of the Goddess. I know they will continue to do so as we move forward, and as the Sheikah protect me and my descendants in preparation for the next Calamity."

They blink at her.

"My people do not wish me to be queen. I am, as always, a servant to my country, and therefore I will provide them both what they want and what they need. Right now they need leadership without a throne. Without a castle. They do not need grandeur and heralds and ceremony. They do not need me to be separate from them. They need someone to roll up their sleeves and listen to their needs and _work_. You are both farmers. I'm sure you can appreciate this. And if this is what my people need, then it is what I will provide." She assesses how well they're listening, if she's getting through to them. 

"And so now I must ask you," she says, "do your loyalties lie with the crown or with Hylia?"

She can see it as they struggle with a truth that has been ingrained in them since before the last Calamity, Impa's answer to the same question: the crown and the blood of the Goddess are one in the same. Then Olkin bows his head, clearly thinking he has a clever answer. "Our loyalties lie with you." Steen drops his head in agreement.

"Excellent," Zelda says. "Then you will no longer question my orders. I have considered my decision thoroughly after discussing the matter with the other leaders of Hyrule."

"We didn't doubt you." He swallows down the first sound of _Your Majesty_.

"Clearly you did. But I hope now you will understand that I am not a foolish girl who requires your convincing."

"Yes, ma'am."

"Do we have an understanding?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"Good." She sinks to her knees before them, and they lift their heads in confusion. "Now. I would like to listen. And then I would like to work. What is it you need?"

#

The Sheikah have pulled in more people and want to continue their discussions among themselves, which is fine because Zelda needs a break. Link walks with her to the woods over Kakariko on the pretense of showing her a shrine by a pond, but there's a fierce, possessive pressure in his hand around hers. 

He likes it when she's bossy.

Sure enough, there is very little looking at the pond. He shuffles her up against the side of the shrine and kisses her so ardently that it makes her dizzy. He digs both hands into her hair, and his hips pin her against the wall. His tongue drags over the her lower lip, over and over, again and again, where she's sensitive like a raw nerve, urging her heart rate faster, shudders skipping across her skin. By the time he tilts her head and nibbles at her ear, she's panting and flushed and clawing for a grip on his arms. He holds her in place so perfectly. She can't move, but she doesn't have to, because he's going to do everything he can to please her, and in that she's powerful.

"Link," she gasps, a demand that he take her right here rolling to the end of her tongue.

Instead, she twitches her head away. "That tickles." She takes his hand from her hair and threads her fingers through his, bringing it down to swing beside them. He pulls back enough for her to smile at him. A friendly smile. Not a sultry one or a satisfied one. Haha, isn't kissing fun?

He blinks at her.

She doesn't know what to do, so she boops his nose. 

She says the word "Boop."

And now his blank face is back, and he pushes a full step away from her. Hooks snag in her heart, urging her to follow him, to close the distance once more, to draw him back to her. Instead, she threads her fingers through his other hand as well and swings them playfully between them.

She's blushing so hard that it hurts a bit.

She needs to change the subject. Say something to break the tension. To show they're good, she just needs a minute.

"Do you ever think about sex?" she asks, which is really not changing the subject at all.

He gives her a look that she can't quite decipher. "I'm eighteen," he says. 

She rolls her eyes. "I'm not convinced you are eighteen. The timeline you presented to me is questionable at best." 

"I feel eighteen," he says. "What with how much I think about sex." 

Her blush gets worse. She's a bit lightheaded. "Ah. Well. That's..." She should tackle him to the ground.

He exhales and takes another step back, and she feels bereft. "I'm sorry. I'm making you uncomfortable," Link says. 

"No! I'm...it's fine."

He cringes. "I've been...I just thought I'd lost you. And I wanted to--I've come on too strong lately. I really don't mean to pressure you."

He pulls out of her hands. He's not touching her at all now.

"I don't feel pressured," she says. It comes out small.

His face looks pained. "It was too much in the cabin. I crossed a line."

"You didn't cross a line, I just..."

"Hated it?"

"I didn't say that."

"You hated it. Did I hurt you?" His eyebrows pinch tightly together.

"Of course not! I just--"

"I can do better," he assures her. He takes a step towards her and slips his hand into hers. "You're always saying that practice will make it better, right? So I can try again, and you can tell me exactly what to do. If you'll let me?"

She...

She tilts her head and considers this. It honestly isn't a problem that needs solving, but--like he said--practice makes perfect. And then there's the appeal of giving him exact instructions that he'll follow dutifully and immediately. She zones out a little bit imagining it.

But then if she could barely handle some intense kissing, there's no way she'll handle being spread out beneath him while telling him exactly what she wants. She wants a lot.

He steps slightly closer, and she squeezes his fingers. Her breathing turning shallow as he lowers his face near hers.

Nope. No no no, bad plan.

The words tumble out. "Do you remember the rules?" 

He pauses. Blinks at her. "Clothes stay on?"

She nods, and it's a bit frantic. She swallows hard. "I need the rules back."

He stares at her. A stillness comes over him, and she thinks for the first time that he might understand her dilemma. "You--"

"I might get carried away. I...That's what's wrong. I just...I'm going to get carried away."

Her blush had calmed, but now it's back with a vengeance. 

His eyes darken as she watches. He wets his lower lip, and she can't help but follow the movement and plot very specific situations they culd get themselves into.

He leans in, their arms slipping around each other. "I can do that," he murmurs, and then he kisses her so fiercely that she sinks into it with relief.

#

Link looks like the goofy boy he was before he started leading the army. The anger has melted off him. His shoulders are looser and his smile is dopey. She likes him so much better like this, and spends some time exploring that dopey smile with her thumb as she sits in his lap.

She makes him show her the pond before they head back to town, just so she can have some time to gather herself and straighten her hair. Unsurprisingly, he has very little to say about it. "I fought a Yiga over there. I like the little tiny bridge."

Back in town, the army is getting dinner together, and Links surprises her by not turning his face to stone and shouting at everyone. He does poke his head over the cook pot to see what they're making. Someone hunted a boar and they're roasting it on a spit while one of the Gerudo warriors prepares some carrots and one of the Sheikah warriors cooks rice.

They're dishing out helpings when Impa and Paya make their way down the front steps of Impa's house and wade their way into the crowd of warriors. "Would you mind if we joined you?" Impa asks.

"Of course not," Link says, grabbing another plate and holding it out for a serving of boar meat. Zelda hurries to find a cushion for Impa to sit on as the rest of them are sitting on the ground.

Impa doesn't speak until she's all settled and has tried a bite of everything. "This is very good. Well done," she says. Everyone who worked on the meal mutters a thank you.

"We have been discussing the future of our people."

Zelda sets down her fork.

"We are people of the shadows, people of stealth and secrets. This is who we are. We have taken on that identity as a matter of necessity. Of survival. In the wake of the Calamity ten thousand years ago, we bound ourselves deeper into the shadows--the shadow of the royalty we served, the shadow of our oath to only use out magic in service of the crown. Our technology was buried in darkness and our understanding was hidden by time.

"We have been discussing stepping back into the light. And yet, we are people of shadow. This has been who we are for so long that we will not give it up completely."

Zelda nods. "I would never ask that of you."

Impa nods as well. "It is a difficult balance. And it will take us time to find our way. But we have decided on a few steps to begin joining the rest of Hyrule as equals."

"I'm glad," Zelda says. She keeps her voice calming, as if speaking to an animal that may startle. "What have you decided?"

"The other races have a Champion. We will choose one as well."

Zelda doesn't let her surprise show.

Link stops chewing and tilts his head to the side, considering. He looks at Zelda and lifts his eyebrows.

"There...isn't another Divine Beast to pilot," she says. She prays quickly that Impa hasn't set her sights on Vah Ruta.

Impa turns back to her food with a private smile on her face. "Not today. But in the coming years, I'm sure we can build one."


	19. After the Third Meeting

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> These dorks are spicy, but also weird.

The next week and a half is all contract negotiations.

The ten-thousand-year-old agreement between the Sheikah and the Royal Family of Hyrule is still in effect. Before they can break the contract, they have to have endless debate over whether they _should_ break the contract, despite what Zelda and Impa may think about it. They then have to have the approval of the Hylian Royal Family, in writing, forfeiting the Sheikah's services. Impa is not allowed to assist Zelda in making this document, which once she's done writing it (to Sheikah approval) has to be sealed by Sheikah magic. A young woman named Lasli is assigned to be Zelda's assistant on this. She's cheerful and friendly and a stickler for wording. 

Zelda's head is spinning every evening when they call it a day, and she heads out to the slope to find Link and the army training. They've set up some kind of combination between a down-hill race and an obstacle course that ends in a melee battle at the bottom. She sits for a while at the top of the slope, hoping the fresh air and the silliness will help clear her head. But then Link grabs the shield on which he's sledding and leaps over a set of ridiculous spikes, shooting a flaming arrow at the next barricade so he can crash straight through it, and she finds herself grinning and sighing and daydreaming over how absurd he is. After the melee, he grins up at her and waves, and something clenches in her stomach. It does not clear her head in the slightest.

The Sheikah have to create a new contract, in full, laying out their new arrangement with the blood of Hylia. This takes quite a while, with much heated debate. Zelda attempts to stay out of it as much as she reasonably can, allowing the Sheikah to make their own decisions, yet stopping them when they try to exert too much authority over her autonomy. Link, on the other hand, desperately wants his Sheikah troops to be able to use Sheikah magic in battle, and he puts more effort into trying to convince everyone of this than Zelda has ever seen him put into anything. 

Most things come so easily for him.

She doesn't want to tell him that his fierce determination is attractive, that every time his voice hardens and his eyes narrow, she imagines the strength of his hands, the predatory slope of his shoulders.

He has no such problem letting her know that her efforts to advocate for herself are appreciated. He sweeps her behind Impa's house and presses her against the wall. And then they stand there and stare at each other, breathing hard. His gaze bores into hers and she stares back just as hotly. His hands are heavy on her hips, and her grip is tight around both his wrists, holding him in place. Holding him in place, but not pulling him in.

Because that would be a bad idea.

Her nails dig into his wrist, and he shudders.

She shouldn't start something she can't finish. 

"I—I should—" she says.

"Yeah. Yeah. We both should."

Neither of them move. She runs through their options for privacy and weighs the pros and cons of throwing caution to the wind. He's doing the same.

"Zelda?" Cado calls from around the house. "Where are you? We're ready to start again."

They both sag as the tension is cut. Link laughs awkwardly, and steps back, gesturing for her to go ahead. There are crescents dug into his wrists. He runs his thumb over them throughout the afternoon's meetings, then makes himself very busy with the army until well after Zelda's gone to sleep.

At last, the Sheikah bring out the old contract. Zelda is shocked (although she shouldn't be) that they still have the original. It's in Impa's house, hidden in the wall behind the tapestry. It is sealed in a glass-like crystal with a blue shine, and it takes Zelda a moment to recognize it as the same material that preserved the monks in the shrines. The paper inside seems as crisp and sharp as the day ink was put to paper. It's perfectly readable—although it is in an archaic Sheikah dialect—and this is is to their benefit, because the instructions for voiding the contract are included in the manuscript itself. Zelda, as the sworn representative of the Royal Family (and there are additional steps to take since she is not the crowned monarch and refuses to "just have the crowning ceremony for the sake of making it easier"), must read a long speech to break the first level of protection. A top layer of crystal bursts upwards and shatters on her last word, the shards fizzling into the air. Then the Sheikah council must vote, the final layer of protection fracturing with every spoken ballot. When the final vote is cast, the protection shatters. 

A moment later, the contract fizzles away.

No one moves. No one breathes. There's a weight on their shoulders, and yet a strand of freedom in the air. In this moment, they could all stand and abandon her. They could turn on her. In this moment, they are adrift.

Impa sucks in a breath and pulls out the new contract. They seal it as quickly as possible, Zelda's palm pressed flat to the paper, Sheikah hands surrounding it, lining up their fingers in an array of triangles. Impa taps the back of Zelda's hand, and the Triforce lights gold, bright magic bursting across the page in straight lines of dozens of triangles and in curling swirls like vines, like the rolling fog over Kakariko. The magic barrier locks in place like a shield, and everyone at the table heaves a sigh of relief.

The next day, their attention turns to the next round of contract negotiations: how they will pick a Champion. They have hours and hours of meetings to determine the Champion's responsibilities and privileges, who is eligible, where they would fit into the complicated Sheikah hierarchy, at what point they would be replaced and procedures by which they could be removed. The Sheikah had to have every contingency for the next thousand years planned out. They look ahead. Once set on this course, they will not be moved.

Zelda stays out of it as much as possible. Link stays out of it even more, partially avoiding Zelda, but mostly throwing himself into new training techniques with his Sheikah troops, who are unused to using their battle magic in font of others. 

He returns one afternoon with his hair a mess and his eyes alight with chaos. His fingers brush the back of her hand like an electric shock, and she completely drops whatever she was doing to hone all her attention onto him.

"The Sheikah can summon giant frogs. I got to ride one."

Well. That's nice.

At last, the Sheikah decided to have three rounds of trials, one at each sacred spring, one at each of the next three full moons. They will begin with eight contestants, chosen through a very complicated procedure that Zelda can manage to keep in her head, but Link cannot. There would be a spiritual trial, followed by four bouts, which would whittle the number of contenders down to four for the second trial. At the second trial, there would be another spiritual trial, then two bouts, again halving the number of contestants. This would leave only two contenders for the final trial, where they would face off against each other.

That's good enough for Zelda, and she and the troop leave Kakariko with Paya as her designated Sheikah protection. They head south to Dueling Peaks, and Zelda tumbles off her horse to run up to the Gorons, who lift her from the ground and hug her so hard that her ribs give an audible creak.

She claps her hands together, bouncing at the side of the road. "It's beautiful!" The thick, gray base course, which is the main support of the weight and strain of the road, reaches to where it branches away from the river where it vanishes at the edge of a small encampment for the workers. Beyond that, the subbase of gravel, pounded down to determine the gradient and the curve of the road, stretches off into the distance, most likely all the way to Fort Hateno.

She gets a full tour of the road so far, an update on the unforeseen challenges they faced, and their plans for next steps. They show her the two murals in the road, which both feature a bird native to the area. The Gorons are taken with the birds. At each mural point, there are barrels of rock sorted into different colors and four Gorons sprawled on their bellies on the ground, pressing small shards of rock into the plaster. They kick their feet in the air and hum as they work, placing each piece in time with the thrumming rhythm of their song.

There are quite a few Hylians mixed in with the the Gorons. Some she recognizes from the Dueling Peaks stable, but others are unfamiliar to her. They're cooking at the camp (both stew and rock roast) and rolling barrels down the road, and pouring thirty pound bags of crushed rock into vats that the Gorons mix with great, metal poles.

She murmurs to Rohan, who lowers his head closer to her to hear. "Are they from Hateno?"

He straightens and doesn't bother to lower his voice. "Nah. Most of them are from Lurelin."

"Lurelin!" It's so far!

"Yeah, goro. They like the idea of a road. They were real interested when they first showed up. A few of them took the chance to camp with us for the night and they seemed nice enough, so we offered them a job for a few days. They never left. And then their friends started showing up. They say the pay is good."

Zelda is not going to ask what the Gorons are paying them. "So no sign of Hateno."

"They come to the fort sometimes." Rohan rubs his chin. "When we were getting the subbase down and Rudania was stomping around near there, a whole bunch of 'em were peaking out from behind the wall. I suspect there'll be more when we come back to do the base course, goro."

"Hmmm." Honestly, this is about what she expected: a fearful first look, some courage built with every appearance of the Divine Beast.

"Where is Vah Rudania?" she asks.

"Making a deposit while we get more base course together," Rohan says. "Should be back tomorrow, goro."

"A deposit?"

"Yeah. It grabs about twenty of those broken guardians at a time and carries them over to the Great Plateau. Drops them off with the salvage team at the tech lab."

"The...tech lab?"

"Yeah! A Sheikah guy came through here, when was it—a little more than a week ago? He had a big cart full of books and Sheikah tech."

Zelda turns to share a confused look with Link, who just raises his eyebrows in interest.

Rohan frowns at them. "They said they knew you."

"Everybody knows Zelda," Link says.

"Yes, I'm quite glad you've moved ahead clearing out the guardian remains. I apologize that I wasn't here earlier to coordinate."

Rohan waves a huge hand. "Don't worry so much, little brother. We can handle it."

It's late by the time she's done asking all her questions—most of her questions. The Gorons might run short of limestone and they might need to stop production to mine more. That, or Zelda can arrange for more to be gathered now and ready for delivery by the time they run out.

With all the workers and the army at the camp for the night, it's a bustling city of lights and tents and rich smelling food. They put curry on everything. Someone takes out a lute to play a jig and the Gerudo in the army know a drinking song, and the Gorons have sets of drums where each one plays a different pitch. The celebration shifts to dancing, feet stomping and voices lifted. Zelda claps her hands along with the beat and laughs as the Gerudo pull the Gorons into one of their dances, the resulting chaos magical in its enthusiasm and camaraderie. 

Link shovels the last of his rice into his mouth and washes it down with a Lurelin beverage made of apples. Then he grabs Zelda's hand and hauls her to her feet and into the dancing crowd. It's a hopping dance that has them buffeted into the Gorons, and Link spins them around so Zelda doesn't take any of the hits. The Gorons don't notice, and Link is grinning, seeming almost to run into people on purpose, and Zelda is laughing, delighted to simply be led around the dance by his hand at the small of her back.

The Gorons tire but Link doesn't. The song changes and he slips closer. It's a complicated song, with interlocking footwork and a lot of twirling—at least in the way Zelda knows how to dance to it, the way Link knows how to dance to it, something deep in his muscle memory guiding him through steps only she remembers, matching her perfectly, leading perfectly. Her heart races, and he won't take his eyes off her face, and she'd feel deeply embarrassed if not for the fire that lights in her chest and pushes her to stare back. Her fingers brush the hair at the back of his neck, and his fingers tighten against her back.

He spins her and spins her and then they're crashing into his tent, locked together at the mouth, desperate and hungry, gripping at each other as they crash onto the cot. "Belts off," she orders, and he pulls back enough for them to dump all his equipment onto the floor before she grabs the back of his neck and pulls him back down. His hands sneak under the hem of her shirt, and she hisses in delight, but he pulls his hands away and breaks the kiss to swear. "Sorry. I forgot the rules."

"Right," she gasps. "Rules."

He swallows hard and nods. He looks down at her, and she can see all the things he wants to do to her get crossed off one after another. Then he's just staring at her chest, and it's so absurd and yet makes her face heat. 

"Clothes stay on," he says, almost as if he doesn't remember if that's a rule or not.

She nods. Her throat is dry. Maybe clothes could come off. That would be fine, right?

"And no hands," he says. 

"That's...an odd way of putting it, but—"

He kisses her hard, and she moans into it, dragging her hands up around his shoulders to hold him tight. He licks and kisses at her ear until she's panting and dizzy, and then he makes his way down her throat, to her collar bone. His lips brush the collar of her shirt and her eyebrows furrow in frustration and loss. With a breath as if he's about to dive below water, he moves lower, kissing her through her shirt, open-mouthed and wet. She gasps, digging her nails into his hair and trembling, her knees squeezing his hips. The flat of his tongue pulses, and he nips and bites, scraping his teeth over the cotton and soothing it back down with his tongue, plastering the fabric to her skin and snapping it with his teeth. He finds her nipple through her shirt and her bindings and the sound she makes is obscene. It's strange and arousing and he's not touching her enough and under her loud panting, there's a sound of wet sucking against fabric. The desire building in her blood comes much less from the tactile sensation and more that fact that nothing will stand in his way of showing how much he wants her. His hands are planted against the cot at her sides, and the realization that he's not going to use his hands has her eyes rolling.

She bites her lip when he moves lower, down her stomach, his tongue working deep into her abs, her shirt rucking up enough to offer him a sliver of skin that has her crying out and her back arching as he licks it. He breathes against her bare skin, and she tingles all over.

Then he lowers his head and places a kiss to the button on the front of her pants. Her whole body tenses. She can't get enough air. He licks his way down to the inside of her thigh, his tongue stroking and his lips working and it's not nearly enough through the thick fabric of her pants, and she can hardly believe he's doing this and her hips are rolling and _why is he doing this?_ It's not enough. He licks a strong upward stripe between her legs, and she muffles a scream and kicks him off. 

She scrambles at the buttons on her pants and tears them away, while he yanks his tunic and undershirt over his head. When he settles back into place, it's with the bare skin of his shoulders against the inside of her thighs. He's still wearing his bracers and gloves and she's still wearing her underwear, but he can lick her through them, so that's fine. That's good. It's _...really_ good. She sighs and gasps and pants and tries not to tug his hair too hard, until he wraps his fingers over hers and squeezes to encourage her to do just that. 

She's floating, soaring, and it takes an age to come down. When she does, it's to Link, hovering over her and working up to his own climax. She swats his hand aside and takes over. He swallows thickly and braces his hands over her head, pressing his forehead to hers. She revels in the sound of his breathing, then kisses him hard, her free hand holding the back of his neck.

He refuses to get off her when he's done, pulling away only enough to get them cleaned up, but then wrapping her tight in his arms and snuggling into her like a barnacle. He nuzzles his face into her neck and digs a hand into her hair.

"We...did not follow the rules," she says. Her mind is fuzzy, and she's already half asleep. She should rouse herself and take her field notes. She should soak up all the heat and affection he's pressing into her.

"I'm sorry," he says. He's still catching his breath. "Maybe we'll do better next time."

There is no way they'll do better next time.

#

Vah Rudania is attached to the side of the cliff leading up to the Great Plateau. Her head peeks over the top and the tip of her tail hangs about fifty-feet off the ground. There are shouts as the army rides up, and movement at the top of the plateau followed by a flurry of activity down the side of the cliff.

And Zelda realizes that they've built an elevator.

It's huge. Big enough for a donkey and cart to stand on the platform. There are railings on all sides, and it's pulled up by chains on all four corners. At the base, the elevator is sectioned off by a metal room that remains fixed in place even when the elevator rises, keeping the area clear. It seems there's another permanent room at the top to receive the elevator.

The elevator lands just as the army arrives and dismounts, and Purah bounces out and charges up to Zelda. "You survived! I knew it. I told Paya you were way too clever to die."

"Purah! What are you doing here?" She had a strong suspicion Purah was here, but after hiding in the Hateno Tech Lab for so long, it's shocking to see her running around in the open, shocking to see how much she's built in such a short amount of time. Or maybe someone else made the elevator? It looks as though the Gorons built it.

"I am here to build the new Royal Tech Lab! Er—Non-Royal Tech Lab. The Tech Lab of the Goddess!" She throws out a hand as if framing a sign. "Oh, I like that! It's fitting since we're set up in the Temple of Time. Come see what we've got set up. Look at this elevator!" 

Zelda follows after her, Link and Paya at her heels. "But how did you know to come here?"

"A little bird told me. He had bright red hair. Looked _absurd_." She herds them all into the elevator and swings a gate closed once they're inside. "He said you were setting up here and those pirates were going to need some direction." She flips a lever with a loud _clunk_ , and then gestures Link towards a crank, that will apparently make the elevator rise.

He gives Purah a blank look. 

"What? You're all strong and whatever."

He turns to Zelda and lifts and eyebrow. _Can you believe this?_

She waves a dismissive hand at him, but she's too excited to come off as pompous as she intends. "Yes. General, if you would lift us up the cliff, please. You are are strongest of us—" (Paya snorts.) "—and I know how much you enjoy doing manual labor for people." 

He grins at her, and takes hold of the crank. One full turn has them lifted ten feet off the ground, and as soon as they're above the cage, Zelda is leaning over the side to see how it works.

"How'd you get down by yourself?" Zelda asks.

Purah poses as if that will show off her biceps. "I'm a powerful Sheikah warrior."

Zelda gives her an amused look, then turns it on Link, who mouths, "It's not hard." He doesn't look as though he's straining much at all. He jerks his head at a step stool that Purah apparently used to make herself tall enough to reach the crank on her decent.

Purah huffs. "Of course it's not hard! It's Zelda's invention, and she designed it that way."

Leaning even further out, she gets a better angle at the pulley system. It's recognizable as a refinement of the system she created to board Vah Rudania. This just looks larger and more permanent.

Paya reaches out and grabs her by the back of her belt.

"Of course," Purah says, "it'd be better if the entrance was open and we could take the horses straight up the stairs."

The second they step foot off the elevator and onto the plateau, the ground begins to shake, and Zelda looks up just in time for Yunobo to crash into her and spin her into a crushing hug. "We were so worried about you!"

She laughs as much as she's able and pats what she can reach of him with her arms pinned to her sides. "I'm sorry to have worried you."

He sets her down, and Link and Paya run up, Link looking harassed, Paya looking traumatized. "I saw your marvelous work on the road."

"Aww! Thanks!" He rubs the back of his neck.

"But wait until you see the lab," Purah says, pushing at Link's back to get him to move towards the Temple of Time.

There are guardians all around them. They're set in two neat rows that form a wide aisle pointing straight at the temple. The thoroughfare is wide enough for Rudania to walk through...because, Zelda realizes, the rows were made by Rudania plucking the guardians from her back and setting them down with her right claw and then left claw. 

Four Gorons and Captain Nell wave at her from a kind of crane contraption they have set up around the guardian at the end of the aisle. They lift it up and placing it on a cart.

The Captain jogs up to her, his pace only slowing and his face falling slightly when he realizes that she's brought company. But then he visibly rallies and his smile flashes. "My lady! What a pleasure to see you again."

"Captain Nell! What an unexpected pleasure. I thought you would be off again to explore the high seas."

"Ah, but the call of adventure comes from unexpected sources. We are a salvage crew, and here is salvage." He gestures about.

"I wasn't expecting—"

"So much progress?" Purah asks. 

"...Indeed."

"Come see."

There are wide planks set down over the stairs leading up to the temple. They creak under her boots. "I'm shocked," Purah says, "but it turns out these pirates are fantastic ab assistants. Who would have guessed. They're giving Symin a run for his money. We still need to fix the roof, of course, but we're going to need some assistance for that. Right now, we're just staying out of the rain's way."

Sure enough, the floor under the hole in the roof is empty.

But the other side of the room is packed with work benches and dismantled guardian parts sorted into crates. Tubing hangs to dry from the ceiling, and a half-full vat of data ink shimmers and bubbles as it drains through a filter into another vat. Purah's guidance stone sits at the back beside the guidance stone Zelda made and a third one that's been put together since she left. Books without bookshelves sit in boxes, and programing diagrams are plastered on the walls between the stained glass windows. Above it all, the statue of the Goddess watches them. Even with all the beautiful chaos on the ground, Zelda's eyes are drawn upwards. 

Link squeezes her shoulder, as her eyes fill with tears. She never thought she could have this. She never thought the Goddess would smile over a tech lab.

Purah spins with her arms flung out, then sighs in contentment. "Well, boss. What now?"


	20. Before the fourth meeting

Zelda, Purah, and Loone fight over a complicated knot in the slate programming. Zelda thinks it should be over-under. Purah insists that mathematically it doesn't matter, so they should do under-over. Loone keeps interrupting to have them explain things, and this gets them off task for a while while they explain, Purah grabbing paper to sketch an example, Zelda holding up a long tube and bending it to show what she's talking about. The explanations only explain their arguments better and entrench them deeper, but now Loone has an opinion too until they have to stop and explain something else, which leads to their voices raising higher.

Paya is not at all interested in learning about the tech. The yelling is stressing her out.

Meanwhile, Link has wandered off to help bring in the next round of decayed guardian parts. Symin has an elaborate cataloguing system that no one has yet to decipher, and Link and Nell have not once guessed the correct place they should deposit a guardian. Neither of them seem bothered when they have to move things around, or bothered at how Symin is growing more and more frazzled. In fact...

Symin throws his arms in the air and storms over to a different guardian, and Link bites into his lip to hold down a laugh.

Zelda trails off mid sentence and narrows her eyes at him. He's doing this on purpose.

Fingers snap in front of her face. "Zelda! Hel-loooo!" Zelda blinks and twists around to Purah, who's leaning over the table to get in her face. Purah rolls her eyes and straightens up. "If you're going to get distracted every time that boy lifts something--"

"What? I wasn't--"

Purah groans so loudly that it drowns out her denials, even though she was distracted by how obnoxious he's being and how he's been here four hours and already disrupting the running of her new tech lab. She wasn't distracted by...

Link hauls on a rope, lifting the guardian he just set down back onto the cart. There's something about the set of his feet, the way he moves his arms hand over hand, the way he leans back against the rope, throwing his weight behind him.

Zelda looks away. She picks up her rant right where she left off, but louder this time. "If you do under-over, the instructions from sensor 14 become dampened by the over!"

"Sensor 14 is so far way that the difference is negligible!"

"It is _if it's over-under_!"

"No! Either way! Take the measurements!"

"Why don't you just move the sensor?" Loone asks.

Zelda and Paya blink at her. 

She blinks back at them. "You put it in there. That was one of the ones that was broken and had to be replaced. I remember because Bruce and I made a song. _Six, seven, ten / Four-teen, thirty-nine / Don't hide those in your pillow/They're the ones we need to find_."

Zelda's staring at her is only partially about the strangeness of the song. Slowly, she and Purah turn to stare at each other. Zelda yanks forward a new sheet of paper and pulls one of the pencils from behind her ear.

"You're not going to move all the sensors!" Purah shouts. "You already have a whole program that's _almost_ perfect. No! You have two programs for two different arrangements, and instead of finishing either, you're starting another one. You can't start from scratch again. No."

"If this knot is such a big issue for you--"

"Fine! Over-under! What do I know? I only have a century’s experience with this!"

Loone’s eyebrows furrow in confusion.

“Well,” Zelda says quickly, pulling forward another page of designs. “That takes us to the twist around the second tube.”

Purah screeches and stabs at the page with her finger. “WHAT ARE YOU EVEN DOING HERE? This is nonsense!”

She doesn’t realize how late it gets until Link interrupts to wish her goodnight. She blinks around the room. It's less of a cavernous ruin thanks to Symin’s efforts to light the place well, and it's difficult to notice how very dark it's been for quite some time probably. But now that Link mentions it, most of her team (her team!) has vanished. It's just her and Purah and Paya and Hesh, who's fiddling with the valves on the data ink kettles. She doesn’t remember the last time she saw Symin or the captain. Loone went to get a snack quite some time ago and never returned. Zelda can no longer hear the Gordon’s singing in the distance, which means it must be very late indeed.

She frowns around in befuddlement and dismay. Link smirks at her.

A part of her that she doesn’t care for right now enjoys it when he smirks at her. The only solution besides getting flustered or throwing herself at him is to get huffy. 

So she does.

“Fine then. Be that way." She waves him away and then busies herself with her journal. "Good night!"

He laughs under his breath and smacks a kiss to her cheek. Purah is dozing off and doesn't say anything.

From the corner of her eye, she catches Link have a hushed conversation with Paya, who sits cross-legged on a stool. 

Zelda is officially Paya's problem until she retires for the evening. And Zelda won't be doing that until Link is sound asleep.

She can stay up another hour. 

Purah can't tho. Zelda asks a question twenty minutes later, to which she gets no answer. Purah is passed out over her notes, her glasses askew, her lips parted, and her breathing deep. Hesh comes up and peers at her, then snorts softly and hefts her up and over his shoulder to carry her away. A few minutes later he's back, checking a pocket watch and then twisting a valve and checking a temperature.

Zelda keeps working.

"Z-Zelda?"

She looks up at where Paya is standing on the other side of the table. When did she get up?

"You're zoning out."

"I...Am I?" She blinks. Her shoulders hurt.

Paya gives her a long look. "Y-you should go to bed."

She checks the time on the clock on the table. An hour and fifteen minutes have passed. "Perhaps you're right," she says. She takes her time tidying up her area. 

Purah (but really Symin) has arranged for the old abbey ruins to be slightly modified to house everyone. Old, wooden barricades have been placed to act as a roof, and everyone has their own little room with thick stone walls and dusty, drab curtains where the doors should be. Purah keeps insisting that when more Sheikah come, they'll put a proper roof on.

Right now, it's easiest to reach the abbey by leaving through the hole in the wall of the temple. They wave goodnight to Hesh, who is the last one up, and he gives them a tired smile back, then slowly moves across the room to take a seat before the Goddess statue. Zelda lets herself look over her shoulder as she climbs over the short wall of rubble. Hesh pulls a vial from his vest. Zelda looks away.

She wonders if she ought to speak to him. Maybe she'll ask the captain's opinion.

She covers a yawn with the back of her hand. Whatever she does, it will not be tonight.

They tread quietly into the abbey. The hallway isn't roofed, but the individual rooms are sealed off and dark. The plush grass keeps their steps silent. She waves goodbye to Paya and ducks into her room, where she's surprised to see that Link has left a luminous stone lamp uncovered for her. They don't have a cot (Purah insists the furniture will arrive with the Sheikah), but they have two bed rolls that Link has arranged like one large bedroll. 

He's facing the door, but he's sound asleep, slightly curled on himself. The Master Sword is on the floor over his head. 

Zelda changes into her pajamas quickly--the Gerudo kind with soft pants and a long-sleeved shirt.

She hesitates a moment. Then tugs her drawstring tighter. Then double knots it. Triple knots it. She takes the ends and wraps them back around and then ties ridiculous, useless knots in those too.

She nods to herself. And then she slips into the bed roll with Link, snuggling up against his back and wrapping an arm around his chest. She presses her palm to his heart and feels its steady pulse lull her to sleep. He shifts enough to cover her hand with his own.

*

Zelda wakes with Link curled around her back. Sometime in the night, they switched positions.

One of his hands has slipped inside her shirt, cupping her breast. His other hand has drifted low enough that when he twitches in his sleep--a dream of fighting or running--she's wide awake. A second twitch, and her face is hot, her body responding in ways that are completely unhelpful. She rolls to face him, and that's better because now his hands are between her shoulder blades and on her rear, which is fairly innocuous. At least for Link. She cuddles into his neck and tries to get a few minutes more sleep. Link breathes in as if he's smelling her hair, then nuzzles down until he finds her lips for a kiss, languorous and warm. The kisses stay long and slow, and doesn't seem to be going anywhere, so she relaxes into it and nearly falls asleep again. At least she does until his hips roll against hers, and she moans and pulls back. His breathing has picked up, and his face is a bit pink, but his eyes are closed and his face is slack.

"Link," she murmurs. She's probably a bit pink too. "Open your eyes."

He does, and the dark heat in them makes her breath catch and makes her doubt if he was as asleep as she first thought.

"Morning," he says, soft and warm, and her heart squeezes so that she pulls him back in for another kiss, and a moment later, instead of something lazy and pleased, they're suddenly frantic and thrown into an awkward race to fumble out of their clothes without breaking their kiss until all that's left are her pants where the drawstring has the worst knot in the history of knots. Why won't it come undone? What's going on there? What did...She remembers: past-Zelda was short-sighted and hated nice things. She digs in her nails and tugs until Link tries to take over. They're kissing and gasping and writhing as he yanks at the knot. And there are other things they could do if they gave up on her pants, but he's warm against her and fierce in her arms, and the most important thing in the world is to get her pants off right this second.

He gives up on the knot, grabs the sides of her pants, and yanks them down. The drawstring is far too tight, and she squeaks. 

"Sorry! Sorry!" he pants, then he grabs either side of the drawstring. Before she can stop him, he rips. 

The string does not break in his hands. He stops kissing her enough to look baffled. He tries again, and looks even more confused that he's not actually strong enough to tear off her clothes. She can't help the frantic giggle that rises up, but he seals his lips back over hers, pulls her close, and rolls them. Still kissing her, he reaches out of their bed rolls with one hand and digs round in his pack.

A moment later, he pulls back with determination, his focus on her drawstring, a giant, spiked boomerang in his hand that he snags under the string.

"Wait! Stop!"

His eyes snap up to hers, and she's startled by the determination his face just as, a second later, he seems startled by the surprise on hers. It's almost as if he didn't realize what he was doing, as if he's only now woken up. His shoulders droop and his face shutters closed in embarrassment. He avoids her eyes, glaring back down at her pants, as if they've done him wrong.

That's something on which they can agree.

She eases the boomerang from his hand and tosses it away, then reaches up to cradle his face and draw him back down into a soothing kiss. He sags into her, then ducks his head to bury his face in her neck.

"Sorry," she whispers, threading her hand through his hair.

"No, I'm sorry." He sighs in frustration, most likely at himself. "I'm so sorry, Zel. You told me not to push it, and I keep pushing--"

"If me pulling you along counts as you pushing."

"Still. I should have better self-control."

"And I should abide by the boundaries we've agreed to." She looks down at him. "Don't act like this is your responsibility alone."

He squeezes her. "I just...really like you."

She snorts, then strokes her thumb over his cheek. "I like you too."

He beams at her, almost as if he's surprised, and it's so boyish and innocent and at complete odds with how he's completely naked and pressing tight against her that she can't help but laugh again.

He rests his head on her chest and wraps his arms around her.

"Do you remember," she asks, "when we used to just kiss for far too long--just kissing!--and it was the most amazing thing, and we didn't have to do anything more? Maybe because it was new, and it still felt as if I was getting away with something. As if I had something I didn't deserve."

He gives her hip a weak pinch. "Does that mean you understand you deserve it now?"

"Perhaps."

He pinches her again, and she wriggles as if she can get away.

When she settles, he says, "I think now we know how good we can have it."

She thinks on that one for a moment, then smiles up at the wood planked ceiling. They do have it good these days.

#

Vah Rudania and the Gorons leave in the morning, heading back to the road project. In a week, she'll send a small salvage team to collect more guardians when the Divine Beast is free again. Even though the Gorons didn't spend much time in the temple, and even though Vah Rudania was surprisingly quiet, the plateau still feels lonelier without their presence.

But Purah still wants to work through Zelda's designs to program the slate, and Zelda wants to get two more guidance stones set up so they can do all four stages one after another without taking anything apart, and she wants to make enough progress that she can present something at the next Hyrule Reconstruction Committee meeting in nine days.

She's also thinking ahead to how she can get back to Hateno where she promised to help with the aqueduct situation. Perhaps if she shows up with enough supplies, already prepared to be installed, she'll be forgiven the delay.

Link vanishes for a bit to go check on the army at the base of the cliff. That's another issue: he has responsibilities, and he'll need to go back to Castle Town soon. That might be good for her rampant desire to jump him, but then it might just make those feelings more powerful when they reunite. The thought makes her a bit anxious.

Just a bit before lunch, while Zelda is looking for a better way to remove the claw from the end of a rusty guardian leg, there's the sorrowful call of a horn that cuts her off mid-sentence. The lab team exchanges confused looks, until the captain takes it upon himself to hurry up a ladder to the bell tower above them. He scurries back down a minute later. 

"The elevator is coming back up."

"Who's on it?" Zelda asks. She's only expecting Link, but she has no idea why he would announce his arrival like this.

The captain shrugs. "I can see the gear moving, but that's it until they reach the top."

Paya stands from her spot in the corner and heads out the main entrance. Hesh and the captain peel away to join her. Zelda wipes her hands on a rag and hurries after them.

They reach the elevator just a bit before it arrives, revealing an armed band of Zora. Prince Sidon stands head and shoulders taller than everyone, visible even though he's behind them. Just when Zelda's beginning to feel nervous at the sight of so many spears, Sidon throws out his arms. "Zelda!" He smacks his hands against two walls of the elevator cage with a resonant _clang_ , that startles him enough to jerk his arms back into his sides. He laughs to himself. "I do wish the stairs were available, but I suppose we can't be picky. Anyway, how marvelous it is to see you!"

Paya and the captain hurry to open the gate and let everyone off.

Link appears at Zelda's elbow. He'd been hidden behind the row of Zora.

"Prince Sidon!" she says. "It's a pleasure to see you again, but--"

"But what am I doing here?"

She wasn't going to say that.

"I have a story to tell, annnnnd a present to deliver." With a flare, he pulls a parcel from behind his back. It's wrapped in a covering that might be thin paper and might be cloth. It's silver and shimmering and soft in her hands. It's held together with twine, tied with a bow with plenty of rabbit ears and blue-green beads knotted to each end of the twine. They click softly against each other.

She looks up at Sidon in bemused curiosity. 

Is she supposed to open it now?

Sidon bounces on his heels and then tucks his arms behind his back as if that will hold back his excitement.

Yes. Now.

The shape is familiar in her hands. She almost doesn't want to unwrap it. She realizes that she's been staring at the bow too long when Link says, "Zelda's bad at knots."

She comes back to herself and shoots him a glare, because they are not talking about how she had to use Link's terrifying boomerang to get out of her pants to get dressed this morning, thank you. 

He winks at her.

She huffs and sets herself to the task before her. The bow comes undone easily. The thin, silver fabric flows off the gift like water.

She covers her mouth with her hand.

"A Hylian man came through the Domain awhile ago on his way to his home in Tarrey Town," Sidon says. It's horribly rude of her to not look up at him as he speaks, but she can't move. "He told us the story of how you were attacked. Of how you lost the Sheikah slate in the ocean. And how you were now setting up a laboratory here that will one day rival the old royal tech lab." She does look up then, tears welling in her eyes, and his teeth flash when he smiles. "It took us quite some time to find it, but luckily it glows in the dark."

In her hands she holds the Sheikah slate.

"You..."

The slate is grungy and blackened, but completely unharmed. The blue eye winks at her, and then her fingers are flying, checking the map, her notes, the compendium, the runes. A picture of her and Link pops up, squished together so they both fit in the screen. It's all there. 

"You found it," she breathes. And then the tears do spill. She didn't think she'd get it back. She didn't think she'd ever see it again. She'd accepted that. And now...she can't name what she's feeling.

"Thank you! Oh, Sidon, thank you!" She throws her arms around him. She barely reaches his chest, but that doesn't stop her from clinging to him and trying not to sob too loudly. 

He pats her hair. "Think nothing of it. This was a job perfectly suited for the Zora!"

She pulls back and immediately checks the runes while she wipes her eyes with a wrist. A bomb appears in her hand, and she rolls it away and detonates it, already moved to lifting a box from the nearby pond and letting it drop as she switches to cryonis and stasis. She takes a photo of Link, and before she can even lower the slate, he has reached over and tapped the rune for the Master Cycle, which materializes before them so that the Zora scurry back a step.

Air escapes him in a _whoosh_ and his whole body deflates, nearly sagging over the cycle as he runs his hands over it.

Guilt pinches her. She hadn't even thought of how losing the slate would affect Link. He'd lost his Divine Beast because of her carelessness. He'd kept his disappointment locked away so tightly, and she'd been too caught up in herself to notice.

"Once we found it, we knew we had to return it to you with all haste," Sidon says. "I thought it wouldn't been so inconvenient to visit the region until the next reconstruction meeting."

"Of course," Zelda says. "You're always welcome. Would you like a tour?"

"I would love it!"

Link hangs back, not willing to let go of the Master Cycle. A laugh bursts from her and she shoos at him. "Go. Have fun. Just come back."

He grins at her, and suddenly she's walking back to him, puling him in by the back of the neck to kiss him across the cycle.

She presses her forehead to his and beams. He beams back, and she hopes he knows that the sudden burst of warmth in her chest is more than just excitement to have her slate back.

"You got your cycle back."

"Rumble Bumble," he corrects. "And we can warp again."

"We can _warp_ again!" She squeals and bounces. Then she presses her slate to her chest and sighs as the possibilities spread out before her. 

She knows how good they can have it.


	21. Before the fourth meeting

_How undignified_ , Vah Medoh said into Amali's mind, surveying the wide, flat space below the Temple of Time where they would need to land. The landing would be easy. The vertical take off would look silly, and looking silly was Medoh's least favorite thing.

"We can't be choosy," Amali soothed. The best place to land was a ridge where they could simply tip forward when they were ready to leave and let the wind take them, but the best ridge was much too far from the Temple to unload the equipment from Kakariko.

She should mention the difficulty to Zelda. And to Teba. The landing site Teba had arranged in Lurelin was nearing completion, and aside from looking absolutely perfect with its wide, solid perch and its shaded loading area and its decorative arches made of palm wood, Mubs claimed that it would most likely be competed in time for the next circuit. The people of Lurelin had plans to shoot off fireworks upon her arrival were that the case, so she would know it was safe to land. They also had plans for a feast of roast boar and slim cut fish served so fresh you could eat it raw.

The rest of Hyrule needed to hurry up and build their own beautiful landing places, or Medoh was going to bring down every cliff side in the country.

They landed in the less-than-optimal spot with minimal grumbling from Medoh. Amali rolled her shoulders, gave the signal that it was safe to lower the gang plank that was constructed the last time she was in Gerudo Town, and let off her large number of passengers. In addition to several Sheikah and their equipment, all the delegates from the eastern half of Hyrule were aboard for the meeting, and now that they had added the Great Plateau to the circuit, everyone had decided to just get off here and walk the rest of the way to Castle Town rather than stay aboard Medoh for another five days. Amali bid farewell, shouted at one of her girls to stay out of the way, grabbed another of her girls to smooth down her feathers, and dropped down to the lower level to check on the unloading.

The Sheikah from Kakariko had only their personal belongings and too many books, but the Sheikah she had picked up in Tarrey Town had massive equipment stored tight in boxes that Amali was scarcely allowed to look at.

Of course, Medoh had eaves dropped on all the Sheikah's conversations and therefore knew what was in the crates. The Divine Beast kept trying to share the information with Amali, but she refused to listen. As long as it wasn't dangerous, it didn't matter. And it wasn't her business, and she wouldn't understand what anything was anyway.

She landed beside a crate labeled in Sheikah script that she couldn't read, and immediately someone shouted, "Get away from that!" 

One of the Sheikah ran up, slipped between her and the crate, and then threw out his arms dramatically, as if ready to sacrifice himself to protect it. He was extremely short, even for a Sheikah, and over the last few days he had tried to make up for his lack of height with the weight of his personality. He wore a giant set of gold goggles that ticked constantly and made him look a bit like a beetle. 

"I wasn't touching it," she said, using the same calm, firm tone of voice she used when her girls threw irrational temper tantrums.

"You wouldn't be so dismissive if my wife were in there."

"What?" she snapped. "You put a person in a crate?"

"Ah, you'd be careful _then_ , wouldn't you?"

 _Did he put a person in the crate?_ she asked Medoh. Medoh gave a non-committal answer.

"Open the crate immediately!" She took a step forward, and he threw his arms wider. "I need to know what's in there. You can't transport people like this."

"Goddess, Robbie, what are you doing?" A Sheikah woman stomped up and shoved the man out of the way. "I'm sorry," she apologized to Amali. "It's just an automaton in there--"

" _Just_ an automaton!"

"--That will be his wife soon enough as soon as I divorce him. Which might happen tomorrow if he doesn't stop being weird."

"Ritos have powerful wings! The drafts from a single flap--"

The Sheikah woman shoved him along as he ranted, and Amali decided she didn't want to be there.

She headed down the gang plank (and it was quite lovely with its roped railings. If only it were easier to deploy and took up less space) and was greeted by the new director of the new tech lab.

"Zelda!" Amali smiled and spread her wings to welcome the girl into a hug. "I heard you had an adventure."

"You could call it that, yes." She gave a tired smile. Knowing Zelda, she hasn't slept enough since...well perhaps she'd never slept. But she was smiling and actually looked happy. "It seems you've had many adventures as well. Is this a new gang plank? It's lovely! Does it unfold? How much space does it take up?"

Amali laughed. "Too much space."

Zelda looked up to Medoh's wing stretched above them like a canopy. "Perhaps we could attach it under the wing and arrange a way to lower it when needed." She shrugged. "We'll need to make a proper landing station for you here as well. Let me take some measurements before you leave. I'll be sure to talk to Teba about it next week."

Amali grinned. She'd known the girl would be on top of it.

"Is there a band of Sheikah inside along with too many pieces of machinery?"

Amali rolled her eyes. "There is. Please, take them away."

Zelda beamed. Clearly this was her real goal. Amali nearly laughed, both at the girl's excitement and at how well she was covering it with politeness.

Zelda hurried past, but then a half dozen steps up the ramp, turned and ran back down, giving Amali a second hug before rushing up to see her new staff and equipment. Maybe Amali wasn't so low on the girl's list of priorities after all. 

A Sheikah woman followed closely behind Zelda, bowing her head in apology as she slipped past Amali on the ramp.

Most of Amali's family had already disembarked, and she caught up with Kass and Kotts speaking to the Zora Prince, who--as usual--was brimming with enthusiasm. "It's quite the chilly area, but with some elixirs it's not at all unpleasant. I'd even go far enough as to call it peaceful to swim in water no one has seen in a century."

"And there are still turtles there?" Kass asked.

"Dozens of them! They are thriving!"

Kass nodded slowly, deep in thought. Clearly, the Zora prince had cooked up something that would have her husband distracted for the next three months.

"What about turtles?" she asked.

Sidon threw out his arms. "The turtles in the River of the Dead here on the plateau have enormous, resonant shells that my people once made into lyres. Since we haven't had access to the Plateau in a hundred years, we haven't been able to create new instruments. The art was lost. I was hoping to commission Kass to help us recreate the process."

Ah. Yes. That was exactly the kind of thing Kass would throw himself into.

"I have some ideas," he said slowly. "But I don't know how to catch a turtle."

"Ah!" Sidon grinned with a flash of teeth. "Leave that to us."

Kass nodded again, his head tilted and his eyes unfocused somewhere over Sidon's shoulder. 

"Wait! Wait! That's not going to fit."

Amali turned back to Medoh, where Zelda and a few of the Sheikah were attempting to unload hulking equipment that was far too big for the gang plank despite the ramp's comfortable width.

"Back up! No, you too! Back. Let me get a metal slab and we can transport it that way. No! _Wait_."

"If you'll excuse me," Amali said, and flew off to assist.

#

"--So we need a landing site on the Plateau," Amali was saying to Teba when Deltan walked up. 

Vah Medoh had just landed outside Gerudo Town, and Deltan had her bag packed, ready to board and head to the meeting. If only flying away on an ancient machine to another part of the country would get her away from Teba. But no. He was coming to. There was no getting rid of him. 

He rolled his eyes. "That won't be too hard. Zelda will most likely agree to whatever plans we present her." His sharp, bird eye caught on Deltan, and his words took on a double meaning. 

She gave him a dead pan look. She was done with this conversation. She'd been done for a week.

"It's a flat area," Amali went on, oblivious. "And there's plenty of wood and stone around. Probably not much living space for workers, but you know how fast Zelda figures things like that out."

"But if we needed any other materials or equipment, Medoh would have to fly them up. There's no other way to reach the plateau."

"They have an elevator," she said, but she didn't sound like she thought that was a real option. "Hello, Deltan," she said. Her voice was kind, but then took on an edge of concern, her eyes darting to Teba and back. "How are negotiations about Medoh's landing structure?"

There was significantly more dust in the air from the pile of ruins they were using as a landing pad. Deltan pointedly didn't look at it.

She gave Amali the same line she'd given Teba since he arrived: "If Miras doesn't approve the designs, we're not building it. She's the Director of Cultural Sites," or however you translated her title, "so what she says goes. Teba should get a Gerudo architect to design the landing pad. That will make it authentic enough for her."

Teba's voice was a growl, as if he was close to losing his patience, which Deltan knew by now would never happen. "I _had_ a Gerudo architect help design it. I've had _two_ help with these plans. They are authentic Gerudo designs matching the Third Dynasty architecture of the original ruins. It will be constructed with Gerudo building methods, using Gerudo sandstone."

"Then have the architects present it to her," Deltan said. "It's not my decision."

Deltan often thought about how, if not for the fact that Teba was both married and a bird, their constant arguing would be hot. He was nothing if not dedicated to his cause, which was admittedly attractive. 

Alas! His cause was boring. And alas! Her romantic prospects were foiled again. They would have to just get on each other's nerves until one of them killed the other.

She wasn't positive she would win that battle. 

After all, he could fly.

Was there a non-obvious way to ask at the next meeting that the construction on the landing pad (if it ever happened) be done by unmarried Hylian voes? 

Hmmmmm.

Teba lowered his voice. "We both know the real issue has nothing to do with the aesthetics of the project. The issue is that Miras doesn't trust the Sheikah technology, and she's blocking all attempts to make accommodations for the Divine Beasts."

Deltan threw her hands in the air. Teba and his conspiracy theories! "We love Vah Medoh! Because of her, trade and travel are easy! Our people are thriving!"

He waved his bound manual of designs at her. "Then why has this project still not been approved? She's waiting for Medoh to cause the ruins to collapse, so the Divine Beast can be banished from the desert forever."

"I wouldn't let that happen."

"I thought it wasn't your decision," he snapped.

They glared at each other.

"Let me be very clear," Teba said. "I don't want to be in this desert anymore."

"You think any of us want you here?"

"I have been here for weeks. Even with the construction of other landing sites, all my time has been spent _here_." He pointed up to Vah Medoh, who loomed ominously over the rapidly deteriorating ruins, the busy bazaar of tradable goods popped up under her feet. "I'm leaving when Vah Medoh does, and the ruins won't last another landing. If there isn't a safe place to land on her next circuit, she _will not land_."

"Are you threatening to cut us off?"

He straightened and puffed out his chest. "It's a safety issue. We won't let Vah Medoh sink into the sand. We won't let her kill everyone underneath her." Again, he waved at the bazaar.

Deltan sucked a slow, deep breath through her nose. What was her life that any of this was her problem?

She cut a look to Amali, who cringed and shrugged. "I'm really not comfortable landing here. Maybe I can find a different spot next time?"

"Doubtful," Teba said. He turned back to Deltan and waved the designs in her face. "Given all this, I think perhaps you could pull some strings?"

Deltan swiped the design packet out of his hand. Wing. Whatever.

He gave her a smug look, and she considered stomping on his foot as hard as she could. She was wearing heels. It would hurt.

"Deltan!"

They all turned to see Barta running up to them. 

"Where have you been?" Barta whined. "Oh, Sav'otta Amali." She held up a fist to the other champion, who popped it with the tip of her wing.

"Sav'otta."

Barta spun back to Deltan. "I've been trying to get hold of your for days!"

"I've been _here_." She waved the design packet at the bazaar. It was an oddly purging gesture. She could see why Teba did it so much.

"Well, when you go to the meeting, you have to tell Zelda about Naboris."

"What about Naboris?"

Barta switched over to her native language, more because she was upset and speaking quickly than to keep secrets from the Rito. "Her feet are still all messed up!"

"I thought you fixed that."

"I did too! But they still make a noise."

"What kind of noise?"

Barta threw her head back and screamed, "Keekeekeekeekeekeekeah!"

Both the Rito bristled.

Deltan gave her a blank look. "It does not make that noise. You're pranking me, trying to get me to scream in the meeting."

Barta's eyes were huge. "You would do that in the meeting?"

"No."

Barta clasped her hands together and pleaded, switching back to Hylian. "You have to tell Zelda. She needs to come fix it."

Teba slipped into the conversation uninvited to say, "From what I've heard, Zelda has a back log of things she needs to fix."

Amali nodded.

"Who cares! The Divine Beasts get precedence. It's Vah Naboris! That's her favorite one!"

"We don't talk about that," Deltan said. "But he's right." Loath as she is to admit it. "Zelda would have to transport all her equipment out here to make repairs. It might take a while."

Teba added, "And she just got her tech lab up and running. She can't drop everything to come out to the desert for _weeks_." He shot another glare at Deltan.

"Well, then I'll go to her," Barta said, completely missing Teba's jab at Deltan. "We'll just make a terrible noise the whole way."

"You want to take Naboris to the Great Plateau?" Deltan asked.

Barta shrugged. "Sure. Why not?"

"Because you can't get up there?"

"I thought they had stairs."

"The stairs are flooded," Amali said.

"Oh." Barta frowned. "Maybe if we camped out at the bottom?"

That wouldn't work.

Deltan sighed. "I'll tell her. But no promises."

"Okay. Okay. We're just...I'm worried this is causing some actual damage in there, and the sooner it's taken care of...We can feel it getting worse, and it's not just the noise. There's a--a pain. I can't let Naboris end up maimed. I can't." Barta ran both hands through her hair, uncharacteristic worry marring her face.

Deltan's irritation drained. Even Teba's grumpy posture seemed to loosen. Amali reached out to drag a wing down Barta's arm. 

Deltan huffed and tucked the designs under her armpit before pulling Barta into a hug. "I'm not going to let that happen," she swore.

Barta's nails bit into her shoulders. Her forehead pressed against Deltan's ear.

"Don't worry," Teba said, sounding careless and smug enough to be reassuring. "Deltan has plenty of strings to pull."

She reached out of the hug to swat his wing with the back of her hand.

#

Teba smirked as he stepped down off Vah Medoh onto the Rito Village landing pad. It was set right across the road from the stable, and built of dark wood with red painted accents, the stairs curling in a spiral down to the ground. The craftsmanship was exquisite. If only more people could see it.

Cecilia and Harth were there to great him, and he clasped both their shoulders. "Excellent work," he said. "Hopefully the Gerudo delegate will see what you've accomplished and encourage her own people to hurry up." He ran a wing over a railing. "Yes, well done."

Harth peeked over his shoulder at the small number of passengers stepping off Vah Medoh. He frowned and murmured, "Not very many people."

Teba didn't dignify that with a response. Yes, it was a small number of people. mostly merchants, who had already sold most of their wares in Gerudo Town, and even fewer of those than usual, since Medoh was due to make a prolonged stop in Castle Town for the meeting before carrying on to the east. And now that there were two stops in Central Hyrule, there were fewer reasons for passengers to ride through the whole circuit and visit Rito Village. He'd already expressed his concerns that Rito Village was getting the shortest end of the deal, and he would talk about it again at the meeting, and the one after that and the one after that. 

But today, he was home for the first time in weeks, and he was tired.

Between the landing pad and the stable, a few merchants were set up with intricate quilts hung on racks and snowquill clothes laid out for purchase and river fish ready to trade for ocean fish and carved statuettes of bears and pine trees. The market was smaller than what the Gerudo had to offer, but the Rito had a smaller population. 

Teba paused in front of a new stand, manned by a Sheikah man Teba had never seen before. His table was filled with paintings: small ones that could be hung on a wall and even smaller ones that weren't much bigger than a Hylian hand. All of them had scenes of Tabantha.

"Interested in a post card?" the man asked, holding up one of the small paintings. 

"A what?" Teba asked.

"A post card!" He turned it over to show that the back was blank except for a single line down the middle. You can write a short message here, and who you're sending it to here. You drop it off with Vah Medoh, and you can share the beauty of Tabantha with your friends!" He turned the card back over to show a tiny, painted scene of the Warbler's Nest. "Have you been to the Warbler's Nest, sir?"

"Yes," Teba said, keeping the _of course_ to himself.

"Ah!" The man's eyes lit. "Then you get a special stamp on your post card, showing your friends that you've been there." He pulled a small stamp from the side of the table, pressed it into a red ink sponge, then stamped the lower corner of the image. Now there was a little star enclosed in a circle and "I saw it!" written in Hylian script.

"Why...would I want that?"

"Bragging rights!"

"Bragging rights."

"Collect all the stamps, and you can get _gold ink_."

Teba let some of his doubt slip into his tone. "And lots of people earn the gold ink, do they?"

"I've had three today!"

Teba scoffed. "How have you had three customers when Vah Medoh just arrived?"

"Oh, not very many tourists are taking Vah Medoh. It's a two week trip these days. With the roads as safe as they are, most come by horse." He nodded towards the stable, which admittedly...had far too many horses.

Teba frowned and paid quickly for the post card. He took to the air to reach the village, flying over Hylians and Gerudo and a handful of Zora. He landed confused in his home, where his son trilled and threw himself at him. 

"Daddy!"

He hefted the boy off the ground and into his arms. "Oof! You've gotten heavy."

"You were gone so long."

"I know. I'm sorry. Where's your mother?"

Tulin huffed. "She's gone all the time too. She took some tourists sledding. _Again_."

"Sledding?" he asked. _Tourists?_ he thought.

"Yeah, every day she takes them up to the mountains. And they slide down. She won't take me though. She says it's too dangerous or she's too tired."

"Every day?"

"Sometimes twice a day! Everybody really wants the sledding stamp. That's one of the hardest ones to get."

"Oh, do they?"

He set his son down and took his hand, leading him into the village to investigate. After an hour, he landed once again in front of the artist with a gleam in his eye. 

"I'll take two of each," he said.


End file.
